Allowed a motion to be voted on that did not accuratly represent the members

[Guest First time Chair mistake]

I was taken by suprise and not prepared to vote on a topic that involved various members being assigned duties in a certain order. We had previously set a schedule assinging our members duties based on an alphabetical schedule. Now, a member made a motion to change that , a quorum was present, I was taken by suprise and unprepared to respond, and I allowed this motion to be voted on. The quorum however did not represent the members assigned to the duties and I feel it was unfair to vote on this topic esp since we did nto have it on the agenda. Can i amend this? how do I do that on the next meeting? what if a member now wants to rescind the original motion to have duties assigned in alphabetical order, can i as a chair NOT allow the orignal motion to be rescinded? Help! First time Chair!

[Dan Honemann]

I was taken by suprise and not prepared to vote on a topic that involved various members being assigned duties in a certain order. We had previously set a schedule assinging our members duties based on an alphabetical schedule. Now, a member made a motion to change that , a quorum was present, I was taken by suprise and unprepared to respond, and I allowed this motion to be voted on. The quorum however did not represent the members assigned to the duties and I feel it was unfair to vote on this topic esp since we did nto have it on the agenda. Can i amend this? how do I do that on the next meeting? what if a member now wants to rescind the original motion to have duties assigned in alphabetical order, can i as a chair NOT allow the orignal motion to be rescinded? Help! First time Chair!

First off, read the answer to FAQ #1 very carefully. Then get yourself a copy of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief and read it right away (it won't take you very long to read it), paying particular attention to pages 135-141.

Unless you are presiding over a small board or committee, you should not be making any motions or speaking in debate at all.

For some information on the motions to Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted, look at pages 60-62 in your new copy of RONRIB.

Then if you have further questions, come on back here again.

[Trina]

I was taken by suprise and not prepared to vote on a topic that involved various members being assigned duties in a certain order. We had previously set a schedule assinging our members duties based on an alphabetical schedule. Now, a member made a motion to change that , a quorum was present, I was taken by suprise and unprepared to respond, and I allowed this motion to be voted on. The quorum however did not represent the members assigned to the duties and I feel it was unfair to vote on this topic esp since we did nto have it on the agenda. Can i amend this? how do I do that on the next meeting? what if a member now wants to rescind the original motion to have duties assigned in alphabetical order, can i as a chair NOT allow the orignal motion to be rescinded? Help! First time Chair!

These are hypothetical powers that the chair doesn't have anyway (not allowing a motion to come to a vote, or not allowing an earlier motion to be rescinded), so don't feel bad that you didn't somehow prevent the vote on the surprise motion. Also, as far as not allowing the original motion (I assume you mean the one establishing the alphabetical-order schedule in the first place) to be rescinded, it's too late for that -- that change already happened when you announced the result on the vote to change the scheduling process.

One thought (only useful in hindsight) is that the motion that was passed (changing the existing alphabetical schedule to something different), was almost certainly a motion to amend something previously adopted (the previously adopted thing being the alphabetical-order schedule), and therefore would properly have required a higher vote margin to pass. Since you were 'taken by surprise', one assumes there was no previous notice of the motion -- that means a two-thirds vote would have been required to pass the motion (a majority vote of the entire membership would have been adequate as well). A hint that your assembly was processing a motion to amend something previously adopted is your description that, "We had previously set a schedule assigning our members duties based on an alphabetical schedule. Now, a member made a motion to change that" -- "change that" is just a more colloquial way to say that you want to amend something previously adopted.

Please do take Mr. Honemann's advice about reading RONRIB, so you can better serve your group as chair.

[Guest Guest]

Thank you both. I will study up on this and be more prepared. Thank you so much.