No Nominations

[Guest Bob]

At the annual meeting of our nonprofit membership organization, there are no nominations preceding the election of officers. "Elections" are simply announced and ballots passed out for the members to record their vote by writing the name of the person they are voting for. The incumbent President claims that the nomination and ballot vote are one-in-the-same.

In relation to nominations, the only references in our bylaws state:

"Nominating speeches shall not be allowed at the time of the election of officers." and

"A motion to close nominations is never in order and members may vote for a member whether the member’s name has been placed in nomination or not."

By not having "nominations", incumbent officer have a great advantage because new voting members often don't know any other potential candidates.

Does RONR provide anywhere that nominations are required?

Thanks.

[Tim Wynn]

At the annual meeting of our nonprofit membership organization, there are no nominations preceding the election of officers. "Elections" are simply announced and ballots passed out for the members to record their vote by writing the name of the person they are voting for. The incumbent President claims that the nomination and ballot vote are one-in-the-same.

In relation to nominations, the only references in our bylaws state:

"Nominating speeches shall not be allowed at the time of the election of officers." and

"A motion to close nominations is never in order and members may vote for a member whether the member’s name has been placed in nomination or not."

By not having "nominations", incumbent officer have a great advantage because new voting members often don't know any other potential candidates.

Does RONR provide anywhere that nominations are required?

Thanks.

It provides to the contrary. "Strictly speaking, nominations are not necessary when an election is by ballot or roll call, since each member is free to vote for any eligible person, whether he has been nominated or not." - RONR (11th ed.), p. 430, ll. 17-20.

However, RONR does recommend making nominations. See p. 431, ll. 6-8.

In any event, each member has the right to make a nomination for each office.

As for the president's claim that the "nomination and ballot vote are one-in-the-same," I'm not sure what he's saying, but I know it's wrong.

[Guest Edgar]

The incumbent President claims that the nomination and ballot vote are one-in-the-same.

Hopefully he won't be the incumbent president for long.

(And the proper expression is "one and the same".)

[Gary Novosielski]

At the annual meeting of our nonprofit membership organization, there are no nominations preceding the election of officers. "Elections" are simply announced and ballots passed out for the members to record their vote by writing the name of the person they are voting for. The incumbent President claims that the nomination and ballot vote are one-in-the-same.

When you say "there are no" nominations, is this because nobody makes them, or they have been told that they cannot? It appears to be the latter. Yet you say there appear to be no such restrictions in the bylaws. Quite the contrary--they expressly prohibit closing nominations as long as people want to make them (which RONR does anyway.)

So your president can claim anything he likes, but he'd better be able to point it out in the bylaws. If you want to make a nomination, do so (but apparently you should not expect to make a speech). If the chair rules the nomination out of order, Appeal the decision, or don't bother. Either way, you have put the name of someone before the voters, which is all a nomination is, anyway.