Guest Doug Long Posted February 28, 2012 at 10:45 PM Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 at 10:45 PM I am the president of a board of directors for a professional medical organization. We have four advisory/non-voting members on our board. The advisory members are named members of the board of directors. They just don't vote on motions before the board.My question is, can one of the advisory members put forward a motion?They would not be able to vote on the motion, so I am unclear as to their ability to initiate the motion.Thank you for your time.I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted February 28, 2012 at 10:51 PM Report Share Posted February 28, 2012 at 10:51 PM That is for you all to determine for yourselves. See RONR pp. 588-591 for some principles to help with that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Doug Long Posted February 29, 2012 at 02:21 AM Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 at 02:21 AM Thank you for your guidance Chris. I'll check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted February 29, 2012 at 02:42 PM Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 at 02:42 PM Following current custom until the bylaws can be amended to make things clearer isn't such a bad option in the interim either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trina Posted February 29, 2012 at 03:43 PM Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 at 03:43 PM I am the president of a board of directors for a professional medical organization. We have four advisory/non-voting members on our board. The advisory members are named members of the board of directors. They just don't vote on motions before the board.My question is, can one of the advisory members put forward a motion?They would not be able to vote on the motion, so I am unclear as to their ability to initiate the motion.Thank you for your time.I appreciate your efforts on my behalf.Well, they certainly can make motions. Even a non-member can make a motion, if given permission by the assembly to do so. Whether your advisory members have the right to make motions, by virtue of their membership, is something you need to determine (as Chris H. pointed out). Although it does come down to a matter of bylaws interpretation (RONR doesn't deal with different classes of membership with different subsets of rights), there have been a number of previous discussion on this forum about the rights of members whose right to vote is removed. If I come across some links later, I'll post them here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstackpo Posted February 29, 2012 at 04:06 PM Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 at 04:06 PM But don't fall into what might be a trap of saying that a non-voting member retains all the other rights of membership. This might lead to unintended consequences: a non-voter raising points of order; moving to adjourn (or other delaying tactics, which would be sort of implicit votes, as they could end up indirectly defeating the motion) if a motion he didn't like was pending; not getting a meeting notice which could nullify everything that went on when he wasn't there; &c.It might be wise to specify what the non-voter can do in addition to "not vote". This would all go in the bylaws, eventually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted February 29, 2012 at 04:15 PM Report Share Posted February 29, 2012 at 04:15 PM there have been a number of previous discussion on this forum about the rights of members whose right to vote is removed. If I come across some links later, I'll post them here.None of them are definitive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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