After a motion passes question

[Guest Cindy]

Hi

At our 501c3 organization's last board meeting we passed a motion 11 to 4. Now 2 weeks later a particular board member says that the motion wasn't clear so by email the secretary has advised the board what the passed motion stated.

As President I think the appropriate action is to proceed with the motion's directive, however now this board member wants an email vote for the other board members not present. (We did have a quorum and our bylaws does not specifiy getting absentee board member votes.)

What is the appropriate Robert Rules of Order procedure for this type of situation?

Thank you for any advise/recommendations.

Cindy

[George Mervosh]

Hi

At our 501c3 organization's last board meeting we passed a motion 11 to 4. Now 2 weeks later a particular board member says that the motion wasn't clear so by email the secretary has advised the board what the passed motion stated.

As President I think the appropriate action is to proceed with the motion's directive

Agreed

however now this board member wants an email vote for the other board members not present. (We did have a quorum and our bylaws does not specifiy getting absentee board member votes.)

Absentee voting is prohibited unless authorized by the bylaws, and certainly not after the fact. RONR (11th ed), p. 423, l. 17ff

If there were to be a regular board meeting before all of the action was carried out, it might be possible to rescind or amend the unexecuted part(s) of the motion in question, assuming there is/are any. RONR (11th ed.), p. 305ff

The members present and the presiding officer can both do their parts to make sure all motions are perfectly clear before voting on them in the future.

[jstackpo]

The motion was adopted fair and square. If the board member wasn't paying attention at the time, too bad for him/her. Ditto if he was absent.

Proceed to do what the motion said to do.

[g40]

If the motion was not clear, the time for this board member to ask for clarification(s) was BEFORE the vote. You had a quorum, and the motion passed by a significant margin. Unless there are some other specifics, it seems to me that absentees have no rights to object. [i assume this was a regularly scheduled meeting where all board members had an opportunity to attend]. It is done.

The other issue, depending on all the facts and circumstances, then becomes a board relationship or related issue. You will need to decide whether delaying is the best way to deal with difficult and ignorant board members, or moving on (following RONR) is the best course.