Responsibilty of Motions

[Guest Claretha L. Smith]

Hello, we just finished our annual district conference. Always on Sunday the Vice Governor Presides over the 3rd Business Session.During that session Resolutions are presented to the body and must be voted on. My question is: who's responsibilty is it when the Resolutions are read and motions are reread by the Resolution Chair does the Governor come forth to perform the process of motions or does the Vice Governor have oversight to perform the process in lieu of the Governor?

Thank you.

[Tim Wynn]

Hello, we just finished our annual district conference. Always on Sunday the Vice Governor Presides over the 3rd Business Session.During that session Resolutions are presented to the body and must be voted on. My question is: who's responsibilty is it when the Resolutions are read and motions are reread by the Resolution Chair does the Governor come forth to perform the process of motions or does the Vice Governor have oversight to perform the process in lieu of the Governor?

Thank you.

It is the duty of the presiding officer (known as the chair) to preside over the meeting, including the consideration of motions and resolutions.

Check your rules to see if the Governor has the duty of presiding at all meetings or if the Vice-Governor is actually given the duty of presiding at the third business meeting. If this is only a custom of your organization and not a written rule, a point of order would cause the custom to fall to the ground and the written rule would need to be followed. All this assumes the Governor is in attendance at the meeting, since that is how I read your question.

That being said, I'm not sure I fully understand the circumstances of your question.

[Guest Claretha L. Smith]

Thank you for your response. The Circumstances stimulating this question is that during the Fifith (not third) Business Session after the Resolution Chair read the first resolution the Vice-Governor stood to process the resolution into a motion. I then stated Motions was not in her domain. She then asked the question was it true that she was presiding over this business session I responded yes but not over motions that duty befalls to the Governor.

After the business session I requested the Parliamentarian and Vice Governor to stay back for a discussion. During tha that discussion I was told I was correct. This morning she sent me a note stating the inforamation she was not correct.

You (Governor) relinquished and invested your power to the Vice Governor which made her the presiding officer for that business session. She called the meeting to order as the presiding officer.(I never invested or relegated my right to the Vice. We followed the written agenda

As the presiding officer she had the power to preside over the meeting(session) including the resolutions and motion consideration which means there was no need for the Governor to process motions.

Because you (Governor) in presenting the conference agenda, it being accepted by the conference by vote, and you relinquished the podium to the Vice Governor to preside over the fifth business session what was done on Sunday was not correct. For those reasons as well as the fact that "prior practice" was anticipated by the conference body when the vote was taken. If that were not the case there would have been a call for a point of order or some other indication that the conference was not in agreement with the procedure. None of what she is saying is written anywhere. It was my first experience see preside over motion when the Governor is presence.

This is my first year as Governor I want to make sure I am proceeding in the correct order. Thank you.