Invalid vote without debate?

[Guest Cathy Mc]

The organization I am with follows RONR for voting and when someone in the meeting knows how to use or sometimes manipulate them. Our officers know just enough to run the meetings and so it's pretty fast and loose with general things like being recognized, directly addressing other members, and how our motions are sometimes handled, etc. In our last meeting, several items were being discussed about reducing the size of awards for our youth participants. It was decided for some members to do more research about the items being discussed. Out of the blue, a motion was made to eliminate a different award (one not in any previous discussion but related to the other itmes being discussed) and it was seconded and the President called for "All in Favor", "Opposed" (it passed) and it was over in less than 15 seconds. I was too stunned to react with any ROHR (and don't really know what rule it would have been), and another member asked about the fact that we had no discussion about it (not knowing RONR to use correct procedure about it) and the Pres. said OK we can have discussion. The member presented his reasons for not voting on eliminating something until the decision was yet to be made about what the other awards would be reduced to and then the President called for adjournment of the meeting. It was very late into the evening and people just want to go home and not discuss things anymore. My question is, was this a valid vote and is the decision binding if it is not valid? How does it get handled?

[George Mervosh]

Debate is not required on a main motion but the procedure is so sloppy here it's hard to know where to begin.

Unless you have more information, just proceed as if the decision is binding.

[David A Foulkes]

Cathy, you want to invest the paltry sum of $7.50 (US, or $8.99 Canadian) in the purchase of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised - In Brief (2nd Edition, paperback), which you should be able to read in one evening. That will give you a good start, and lead you to the Right Book (11th Edition), which costs a few dollars more, but is the official edition. Come back here often and ask lots of questions, and I'd strongly recommend registering as a member so you don't have to go through the Captcha code screen any more. It will require educating the membership as you go so that they understand the proper procedures and how to take steps to ensure their enforcement.

[Gary c Tesser]

Note also that if the membership later decides it wants to reverse the decision to eliminate the award, they probably can.