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Credentials Report


George Mervosh

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Why is the credentials report (pp. 615-616) actually put to a vote after all proposed amendments to it are dealth with, and not simply declared adopted?  It seems on the surface of it that there should be no opportunity for a membership not to be established.  Thanks for any explanation you care to give.

 

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Well, for about a hundred years or so the rules have called for the making of a motion to adopt the report of the Credentials Committee, and the adoption of that report (with or without amendment), in order to establish the official roll of voting members of a convention, so I wouldn't expect changes any time soon -- although I don't see anything in the rules that would prevent adoption of the committee's report by unanimous consent (without a formal vote).

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Well, for about a hundred years or so the rules have called for the making of a motion to adopt the report of the Credentials Committee, and the adoption of that report (with or without amendment), in order to establish the official roll of voting members of a convention, so I wouldn't expect changes any time soon -- although I don't see anything in the rules that would prevent adoption of the committee's report by unanimous consent (without a formal vote).

 

I certainly wouldn't presume to suggest a change or expect to see one, it just seemed to be one of those motions where the possibility of defeating it seems unthinkable. I am happy to move along because 'the book has always said so'.  :)

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  • 2 years later...

SO based on 100 years of it being in the book, the Chair takes a vote on adopting the report of the credentials committee. All of the challenges are dealt with, and then there is a final vote on the credentials report as amended.

The motion is NOT adopted.

What do we do then? (Other than go to the bar and drink heavily?)

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14 hours ago, Guest Questioner said:

SO based on 100 years of it being in the book, the Chair takes a vote on adopting the report of the credentials committee. All of the challenges are dealt with, and then there is a final vote on the credentials report as amended.

The motion is NOT adopted.

What do we do then? (Other than go to the bar and drink heavily?)

 

7 hours ago, Gary Novosielski said:

You say that like it's a bad thing.

Looks like a good idea to me too, and I guess it's why the delegates in this instance voted as they did, but it has never been my good fortune to be at a convention where this occurred. It was usually just two or three of us who bugged out and headed to the bar.

 

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OK, I appreciate good bar visits, too. But this is a real possibility and I need some actual answers...

So if the Credentials Report is defeated, could the Credentials Committee come forward with a revised report?

I would assume that the motion to reconsider the vote on the original credentials report would not be in order, since the convention isn't formed. Is that correct? 

Thanks!

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4 hours ago, Guest Questioner said:

I would assume that the motion to reconsider the vote on the original credentials report would not be in order, since the convention isn't formed. Is that correct?

That is a bit tricky since, after all, the whole operation of considering (and adopting, if things are going well) a credentials report - the initial one anyway - has a flavor of lifting oneself up by one's own bootstraps.  The voting body of the convention has yet to be established, yet here it is voting to establish itself.  I suppose the resolution of the paradox is that the Association has adopted RONR and it is members of the association that are voting, per RONR, at a sort of pre-convention mass meeting, to establish the actual convention body. (Is there another point of view?)  The credentials committee is a committee (established, in effect, by the adoption of RONR) of the Association, not of the Convention. Given that argument, if the credentials report is defeated, then the association members in the "mass meeting" can continue meeting, using every tool in the RONR toolbox (e.g., amendments which are explicitly mentioned on p. 616) to eventually adopt a credentials report.

So, based on that (slippery-?) reasoning, I'd say reconsideration of the defeated motion (or renewal the next day) is entirely proper.

Others may think otherwise. (They will be wrong, of course.)

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