Personal attack at board meeting

[Guest Delores Stanghellinil]

What action should a board take when a member of the association personally names another member and makes disparaging, false remarks about the member at a board meeting? The attack was completely unprovoked; the member being attached had not spoken at the meeting and there had been no previous encounter between these members. The attack took everyone at the meeting by surprise; the board was unprepared and the president stated that "there would be no more personal remarks about other members". Shoud there be further action by the board, to discourage this type of behavior at meetings?

[Chris Harrison]

The Chair should have called the attacking member to order as soon as the remarks were made and the Board could have punished the member for those remarks. See RONR pp. 645-648 for how to deal with offenses that occur during a meeting and pp. 649-650 & 654-669 for how you would have to deal with it now since the misbehavior wasn't addressed at the meeting in question.

[Rev Ed]

The Chairman should have called the member to order. If that failed, the member could have been "named" by the Chairman. If that still did not help, the Board could have voted to censure and/or have the person removed from the meeting room.

Afterwards, the group with the power to reprimand this member could:

1) Censure the member, if not done so already.

2) Suspend some, or all, of the member's rights.

3) Remove the member as a member.

[Shmuel Gerber]

What action should a board take when a member of the association personally names another member and makes disparaging, false remarks about the member at a board meeting? The attack was completely unprovoked; the member being attached had not spoken at the meeting and there had been no previous encounter between these members. The attack took everyone at the meeting by surprise; the board was unprepared and the president stated that "there would be no more personal remarks about other members". Shoud there be further action by the board, to discourage this type of behavior at meetings?

When members of an association, other than board members, speak at a board meeting, they do so as guests of the board. This type of participation does not fall under the rules for debate at a meeting. Although the chair of the board has broader discretion to deal with disorder by non-board-members than by board members, strictly speaking there is no rule in RONR that outlaws the disparaging remarks, in terms of the rules for the conduct of meetings. It's up to the board to come up with its own rules for non-board-member participation. (Such rules could also be made by the association itself.)