President and Ex-Officio Member

[J H Smith]

Our Bylaws gives power to the President to appoint members to both standing committees and ad-hoc or special committees. A member made a motion to form a Legislative Committee that was second and after discussion the members by a majority vote past the motion. 

 

NOW COMES the PRESIDENT; may  the President appoint themself as the Chairman of the Committee of the Membership (the Legislative Committee) when she is already designated by the bylaws as an ex-offico member to all committees with the exception of the nominating committee?

[jstackpo]

Given that your paraphrase of your bylaws is accurate and complete, yes.

[Randyl Kent Plampin]

Greetings:
 
If the President is already an ex-officio (ex officio, ex-officio. Rats! I'm never going to get this right. Sorry Smith Little. A private joke here.) member then they are automatically a member of these committees by virtue of their office, with the noted exception, and nothing else needs to be done.

 

However, your question is about the chairmanship of the committees. This is going to depend on what your bylaws say about the chairmanship of committees and whether the bylaws draw a distinction between the appointment of members and the appointment of chairmen. Sometimes bylaws reserve to the assembly the right to appoint chairmen while allowing the President to appoint the remaining members. Check your bylaws for the answer to this question. If the bylaws do not draw the distinction then I would say yes, the President can appoint himself as chairman.

 

The motion to form the committee could have included the details as to its composition, yet the mover apparently indicated no preference.

 

Best regards,

Randyl Kent Plampin

[jstackpo]

The motion to form the committee could have included the details as to its composition,...

Not necessarily...

 

If the bylaws give the president the optional power to make appointments, then the motion, by remaining silent, assumes he will do so.  The motion could name members as well.

 

If the bylaws give the president the exclusive power to make appointments, then the motion cannot do so and must remain silent on the appointments.

 

That's two "if"s about the bylaws that Smith Little wasn't explicit on.

[Josh Martin]

Our Bylaws gives power to the President to appoint members to both standing committees and ad-hoc or special committees. A member made a motion to form a Legislative Committee that was second and after discussion the members by a majority vote past the motion. 

 

NOW COMES the PRESIDENT; may  the President appoint themself as the Chairman of the Committee of the Membership (the Legislative Committee) when she is already designated by the bylaws as an ex-offico member to all committees with the exception of the nominating committee?

 

It's not clear to me that the motion to form a Legislative Committee was in order to begin with. Is it intended to be a standing committee? If the bylaws specify certain standing committees, then additional standing committees cannot be created unless the bylaws so provide.

 

Assuming the committee was properly created, if the President is authorized to appoint all committees (except the nominating committee) he is free to appoint himself as the chairman of a committee, notwithstanding that he is an ex-officio member of the committee - unless, of course, your bylaws provide otherwise.

 

The motion to form the committee could have included the details as to its composition, yet the mover apparently indicated no preference.

 

No. If the President is authorized to appoint all committees, then the motion to form the committee cannot include details as to its composition, as that would conflict with the bylaws.

 

If the bylaws give the president the optional power to make appointments, then the motion, by remaining silent, assumes he will do so.  The motion could name members as well.

 

If the bylaws give the president the exclusive power to make appointments, then the motion cannot do so and must remain silent on the appointments.

 

Generally speaking, I think such a power should be interpreted as exclusive.

[Shmuel Gerber]

Greetings:

If the President is already an ex-officio member then they are automatically a member of these committees by virtue of their office, with the noted exception, and nothing else needs to be done.

What if the president wants to be a regular member of the committee and be counted in the quorum?

[Guest Guest]

If he appoints himself as chair does this supercedd his ex officio status and does he count toward the quorum?

[Shmuel Gerber]

If he appoints himself as chair does this supercedd his ex officio status and does he count toward the quorum?

Yes.