Executive Committee Vote On A Motion

[Guest Guest Hobbes]

I have been elected to serve as the Parliamentarian on an Organization's Executive Committee (which consists of ten voting members, including myself) and at the first executive committee meeting of the new calendar year I was asked (by the President and Secretary/Treasurer) to check into a matter which occurred at the last committee meeting prior to my start.

At this particular meeting - with all ten members present, votes were taken on several different matters of business on the agenda. On one particular matter the vote was 5 in favor, 3 not in favor, and 2 abstentions. Upon completion of the meeting one of the committee members questioned whether this was a valid vote, because of the two abstentions on this one matter, due to past practice of needing six affirmative votes to pass (NOTE: there is nothing in the Organization's Constitution and By-Laws covering an executive committee vote other then making sure there is sufficient members present to have a quorum. Motions put to the full membership for a vote do require majority for the motion to pass).

Does this motion pass based on the 5 yes-3 no-2 abstentions vote? If not, what if anything, needs to be done to rectify this matter. The results of this vote have not been made public to the full membership, which is scheduled for later this month.

[JohnR]

Under RONR, the motion passed with a majority (5) of eight votes cast. Is the six-vote rule just a custom or is it a formally adopted special rule of your board?

[Sean Hunt]

Does this motion pass based on the 5 yes-3 no-2 abstentions vote? If not, what if anything, needs to be done to rectify this matter. The results of this vote have not been made public to the full membership, which is scheduled for later this month.

The motion has passed unless your rules provide that you need a majority of the membership voting in favour of that motion. See the FAQ on abstentions.

Now, if you had a situation where the motion had not passed (such as if it had accidentally been declared adopted after a 5-5 vote), it would still stand, as a point of order needs to be raised immediately after the violation has occurred except in a few cases, and declaring a motion to be adopted after an insufficient vote is not one of those.

[Gary Novosielski]

On one particular matter the vote was 5 in favor, 3 not in favor, and 2 abstentions. Upon completion of the meeting one of the committee members questioned whether this was a valid vote, because of the two abstentions on this one matter, due to past practice of needing six affirmative votes to pass (NOTE: there is nothing in the Organization's Constitution and By-Laws covering an executive committee vote other then making sure there is sufficient members present to have a quorum.

Since the member waited until the completion of the meeting to question the decision, rather than raising a point of order at the time, the decision would stand even if it were incorrect.

But in this case it was not, since a vote of 5 - 3 is a majority vote. Abstentions are not votes and are not called for, and should not even have been counted in the first place.

[Guest Guest Hobbes]

Under RONR, the motion passed with a majority (5) of eight votes cast. Is the six-vote rule just a custom or is it a formally adopted special rule of your board?

According to our Board secretary's review of executive committee meeting minutes, this (6-vote rule) may have been a past practice custom.

[Guest Edgar]

I have been elected to serve as the Parliamentarian . . .

You might want to . . .

1. Become a member of this forum. There's no obligation, no salesman will call, and you won't have to keep deciphering the hideous CAPTCHA codes.
   
2. Get a copy of (and read!) RONR In Brief.
   
3. Get a copy of RONR.
   

[JohnR]

According to our Board secretary's review of executive committee meeting minutes, this (6-vote rule) may have been a past practice custom.

Unless your motion required a vote of the majority of members (which is unusual), then it passed with a majority of votes cast. That is the usual rule. You can follow your custom if you like, but as soon as a member raises a point of order you will have to abandon it.