Motion made to purchase item without stating cost

[Guest Marie]

The following motion was adopted at a general meeting of the membership:

Member A made a motion that the club purchase Brand X services for marketing the club; Member B and Member C seconded. Member D amended the motion to state that the Chair of the Communications Committee would coordinate the Brand X services; Member E seconded. The amended motion passed unanimously.

My question is: can a motion be valid if the cost of services/item is not listed?

I have tried to search for the pertinent section in RONR, but could not find it.

Thanks!

Marie

[Sean Hunt]

Yes. RONR is a procedural manual, and provides no limitations on the sort of motion that can be adopted, aside from procedural rules such as the rules that motions must do something and must not be in conflict with previously-adopted motions.

If you feel that this is an issue, then it may be advisable to move for the adoption of a special rule of order along the lines of 'No motion to approve a purchase shall be admitted unless it specifies a limit to how much can be spent on the purchase.'

[Rev Ed]

There is no need to have a monetary amount included in the motion - however, anyone can move to amend the motion to include the amount at the time the motion is orginally discussed. Afterwards, if the motion has not been completed (i.e. that the contract to has not been signed or an agreement with the company has not been made) then a motion to "Amend Something Previously Adopted) is possible to include a monetary limit.

[Guest Edgar]

Member A made a motion that the club purchase Brand X services for marketing the club; Member B and Member C seconded. Member D amended the motion to state that the Chair of the Communications Committee would coordinate the Brand X services; Member E seconded. The amended motion passed unanimously.

While we're at it, you want to make sure that the amendment (made by Member D) was first voted on (and presumably adopted) before returning to the main motion (made by Member A) and voting on that as well. Note, also, that the second "second" (made by Member C) was unnecessary. It's also unnecessary (and perhaps unwise) to record that the motion was adopted "unanimously".