Moderator Asked To Leave

[Guest Tom Fleming]

I am a pastor of a church and, as written in the by-laws, I am the moderator of all business meetings. We had a special called business meeting. A motion was made by our finance team. Of course, no second was needed. A question was raised, and subsequently answered. Then, a member sttood and asked that I be excused. I didn't have a problem with her addressing the congreation in my absence, so I left. What is the procedure when something like this happens? Thanks.

[Tim Wynn]

I am a pastor of a church and, as written in the by-laws, I am the moderator of all business meetings. We had a special called business meeting. A motion was made by our finance team. Of course, no second was needed. A question was raised, and subsequently answered. Then, a member sttood and asked that I be excused. I didn't have a problem with her addressing the congreation in my absence, so I left. What is the procedure when something like this happens? Thanks.

If you're a member, you have a right to attend and cannot be excluded from a meeting, except through disciplinary action.

If you're not a member, you still have a duty to preside, which requires attending the meeting, but the rules can be suspended to take away your authority to preside at all or part of a meeting and you could be excluded from the meeting.

There is no rule that says you have to leave at the request of a member, and I generally wouldn't recommend doing so.

[Chris Harrison]

If you are a member of the body which is meeting you have a right to attend the meetings and cannot be compelled to leave (except as a result of disciplinary proceedings [RONR p. 644 ll. 22-28]).

[Guest Edgar]

What is the procedure when something like this happens?

If you're asking who should have presided in your absence (and someone should have), the assembly would elect a chair pro tem to serve until you returned. This assumes there is no "vice-moderator" ("vice-pastor"?) to take over while you're away.