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Point of order


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When a point of order has been raised can a motion be made and accepted by the Chair prior to the Point of order being addressed and finalized.

The answer will be "no", with one exception. See RONR (11th ed.), p. 247-248, Standard Descriptive Characteristics 1 and 2.

Edit - Since you mentioned "finalized", you might be referring to an appeal, and that's a different ballgame. See RONR (11th ed.), p. 256-257.

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The point of order was raised when the Chair in the conduct of the meeting failed to address the reading and approval of minutes not read and approved at a earliar meeting and not only accepted a motion from the floor calling for the suspension of reading all minutes and without a second to that motion {illegal as it was} called for a vote.

The membership, which has demonstrated zero familiarity with Robert's Rules in the past voted yea..

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The point of order was raised when the Chair in the conduct of the meeting failed to address the reading and approval of minutes not read and approved at a earliar meeting and not only accepted a motion from the floor calling for the suspension of reading all minutes and without a second to that motion {illegal as it was} called for a vote.

The membership, which has demonstrated zero familiarity with Robert's Rules in the past voted yea..

Could you tell us what happened, in sequence, from start to finish? Try using a numbered list. Also, when the point of order was made, what exactly was the point of order?

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1.Chair in conduct of membership meeting anounced "Approval of minutes of annual meeting of members of XXCC, February 27, 2012"

2.Point of Order made, "Robert's Rules states that unread minutes and approval of minutes of meeting February 2011 must be read and approved prior to those of 2012".

3. Chair recognized an individual from the floor before re-stating the Point of Order.

4. Motion is made, To shelve all reading of minutes.

5. Without getting a second on the motion or re-stating the motion to the body for action, immediately called for a vote.

6. membership voted yea, lone member who made the Point of Order voted nay.

Without question the lone member should have raised an additional Point of Order. What is his recourse?

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1.Chair in conduct of membership meeting anounced "Approval of minutes of annual meeting of members of XXCC, February 27, 2012"

2.Point of Order made, "Robert's Rules states that unread minutes and approval of minutes of meeting February 2011 must be read and approved prior to those of 2012".

3. Chair recognized an individual from the floor before re-stating the Point of Order.

4. Motion is made, To shelve all reading of minutes.

5. Without getting a second on the motion or re-stating the motion to the body for action, immediately called for a vote.

6. membership voted yea, lone member who made the Point of Order voted nay.

Without question the lone member should have raised an additional Point of Order. What is his recourse?

If the membership doesn't want to read the minutes for approval, you can't force them to.

The proper thing would be to refer the minutes to a committee for approval, as it is not a good practice to be waiting a whole year, or two years, or three years to approve the minutes. A motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes (which is how I would interpret the motion to "shelve" them) is not debatable, and it may be adopted by a majority vote. However, the minutes remain unapproved, so, as things now stand, it would seem that next meeting there will be three sets of minutes awaiting approval.

It seems appropriate to me that the chair would entertain a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes before ruling on the point of order, because it renders the point moot.

I'm not sure what further point of order you think should have been raised.

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Robert's Rules clearly states that unread and unaproved minutes at a prior meeting are to be read first at the next membership meeting.

As to the further point of order---A motion to be addressed by the membership requires a second. Further, only one question can be considered at a time..

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Robert's Rules clearly states that unread and unaproved minutes at a prior meeting are to be read first at the next membership meeting.

That's true (if the next meeting is a regular meeting or an adjourned meeting held on a later day), and I haven't said otherwise.

As to the further point of order---A motion to be addressed by the membership requires a second.

Do you have any doubt that this motion, which was approved by almost every member present, would have received a second if the chair had asked for one at the appropriate time? So, making a point of order at that time would not have accomplished anything, and it is too late to make a point of order after the vote was taken.

Further, only one question can be considered at a time.

This is a greatly oversimplified statement of the rule. Obviously a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes can be made when the chair calls for their reading, and in my opinion such a motion would also take precedence over a point of order relating to the reading of the minutes.

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