No introduction, but participated in meeting

[kstrong67]

Can a committee member who chose NOT to say their name during introductions still participate in the meeting as well as vote?

[Guest Edgar]

Can a committee member who chose NOT to say their name during introductions still participate in the meeting as well as vote?

No rule in RONR prohibits it. And no rule in RONR requires "introductions" or that a member say his name. Though one would assume that a committee meeting would be a place where everybody knows your name (cue "Cheers" theme here). Further, I think it would take a lot more than not saying your name in order to deprive a member of his right to attend meetings and vote.

All that said, it seems a bit silly for someone to be unwilling to identify himself.

[Chris Harrison]

If this person is a Committee member then he has the rights of a Committee member even if he declines to tell people who he is (unless the bylaws say otherwise).

[Gary Novosielski]

If this person is a Committee member then he has the rights of a Committee member even if he declines to tell people who he is (unless the bylaws say otherwise).

Sure, but how do we know he's a committee member and not--for instance-me?

[Chris Harrison]

Sure, but how do we know he's a committee member and not--for instance-me?

Can a committee member who chose NOT to say their name during introductions still participate in the meeting as well as vote?

The OP doesn't seem to be questioning if this person is a committee member. If I were to venture a guess this sounds like a committee who has nonmembers attend their meetings who may not be familiar with all of the committee members and they do introductions first and this person is refusing to identify himself.

[Guest KD1985]

For point of clarification: we operate under sunshine laws, so all of our meetings are recorded. We, as committee members do (now 99.99% of the time) introduce ourselves and state affiliations. This particular committee member was just removed as chair from that same committee so as we were going around the room introducing ourselves, this committee member declined to state name/affiliations. I assumed it is okay if you choose not to introduce yourself, however, once you choose to speak, comment and/or vote, I would then assume an introduction would be necessary. But, so far, I could not locate anywhere, including in our by-laws, anything that stated an introducation is necessary/required/mandated. I guess I was thinking when made available to the public, the comments made by that person, would just be "anonymous"? Thanks for further assistance/info.

[Guest Edgar]

While I suppose the assembly could adopt a rule requiring all speakers to first identify themselves, you'd still be left with the problem of verifying those identifications as nothing would prevent someone from giving a false name. But then I suppose anyone there who knew his real identity could mention that fact.

[Trina]

For point of clarification: we operate under sunshine laws, so all of our meetings are recorded. We, as committee members do (now 99.99% of the time) introduce ourselves and state affiliations. This particular committee member was just removed as chair from that same committee so as we were going around the room introducing ourselves, this committee member declined to state name/affiliations. I assumed it is okay if you choose not to introduce yourself, however, once you choose to speak, comment and/or vote, I would then assume an introduction would be necessary. But, so far, I could not locate anywhere, including in our by-laws, anything that stated an introducation is necessary/required/mandated. I guess I was thinking when made available to the public, the comments made by that person, would just be "anonymous"? Thanks for further assistance/info.

If the nameless member makes a motion, there is an implied obligation to make his name known (since the name of the motion maker goes in the minutes). Similarly, in case of a roll call vote, the member must be clearly linked to his name (since he must answer to it if he wishes to vote). Other than that, I'm not sure there is anything in RONR requiring the member to confess to having a name at all.

If your group is in the habit of recording members' comments, and releasing the record to the public, why wouldn't the person preparing this record (secretary?) just write the person's name in when describing what happened during the meeting? Or do you mean that a straight audio (or video) recording is made available to the public? In any case, I don't believe RONR has anything to say about requirements to state members' names, other than what is required for the proper content of the minutes.

[David A Foulkes]

This person was the chair of the committee? You did know what his name was then, right? I guess what I'm really asking is -- you DO know what his name is, but he just refuses to say it out loud during this "Hi, I'm Bob from Tulsa" go-around-the-room-for-self-introductions phase?