making a motion to get reimbursed

[Guest Christy]

our association sends a delegate and an alternate to our conventions. i have made a motion to send our president as delegate and myself as alternate. (we are the only two attending anyway.) I have included in the motion that the registration for the delegate and the alternate be reimbursed by the association. we have done this numerous times in the past. i have been told that i cannot make such a motion, that it's against roberts rules of order. i cannot find any such rule. please advise.

[Matt Schafer]

There is no rule in RONR that would cause your motion to be out of order. A member can make a motion to divide the question if he wants to consider the selection of delegates separately from the question of paying the registration fees.

[Shmuel Gerber]

our association sends a delegate and an alternate to our conventions. i have made a motion to send our president as delegate and myself as alternate. (we are the only two attending anyway.) I have included in the motion that the registration for the delegate and the alternate be reimbursed by the association. we have done this numerous times in the past. i have been told that i cannot make such a motion, that it's against roberts rules of order. i cannot find any such rule. please advise.

The person telling you this may have had in mind the rule that a member should not vote on a motion in which he or she has a direct personal or pecuniary interest not in common with the other members. (RONR, 11th ed., p. 407.) It might be better if a different member made the motion instead of you, but, as Mr. Schafer pointed out, there is nothing in RONR that would make the motion itself improper, or even appear to be improper, in any way.