Out of Order Board Member

[Guest Marisol]

If a member is declared out of order by the Chair, what are the potential sanctions (censure, reprimand, etc.) that may be levied and may the Chair act alone?

[Chris Harrison]

The Chair cannot unilaterally discipline a member of the body which is meeting. As for options the body may take see RONR pp. 645-648.

[Rev Ed]

And just because a member is ruled out of order, this does not mean that the member has to be reprimanded. The ruling, however, can be appealed. If the assembly upholds the Chairman's decision, then the member should simply sit down. If the member sits down, leave it. Disciplinary need only occur if the member made rude comments for which he/she was ruled out of order, or if he/she refuses to relinquish the floor.

[Josh Martin]

If a member is declared out of order by the Chair, what are the potential sanctions (censure, reprimand, etc.) that may be levied

The penalties which may be imposed are to require the member to make an apology, to censure the member (reprimand and censure are essentially the same thing), to require the member to leave the hall for the remainder of the meeting or until he is prepared to apologize, to suspend the member's rights of membership for a time, or to expel the member from the organization. Any penalty should be resorted to only in extreme circumstances, however, and usually only after repeated offenses. In the general case, no penalty at all is imposed when a member is called to order - the purpose of calling the member to order is to rectify his behavior before punishment becomes necessary.

and may the Chair act alone?

No.

[Dan Honemann]

Since the subject title of this thread is "Out of Order Board Member", it may be worth noting that the maximum penalty an executive board of an organized society can impose upon one of its members for disorderly conduct during one of its meetings is to require that he leave the meeting room for the remainder of the meeting (RONR, 11th ed., p. 486, ll. 19-25).