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Visitors during the board meeting


Guest Kam Gupta

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What happens when the president invites a consultant as visitor and allow them to participate in the meeting as if they are board members? I think we do it because we might not know any better.

 

My understanding is that the visitors can only be observers and can not really sit with the board members in the board meetings.

 

Please help me clarify the circumstances a visitor can be present in the board meeting and participate actively.

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My understanding is that the visitors can only be observers and can not really sit with the board members in the board meetings.

 

RONR doesn't really care where he sits. If it becomes an issue, a majority vote (or unanimous consent) will settle it.

 

Please help me clarify the circumstances a visitor can be present in the board meeting and participate actively.

 

It depends on how actively you want him to participate.

 

A majority vote (or unanimous consent) is required to let the visitor be present and to speak when no question is pending.

 

A 2/3 vote (or unanimous consent) is required to let the visitor speak in debate on a pending question or make motions.

 

Under no circumstances can the visitor be permitted to vote.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Can you please give me a chapter number and paragraph? I cannot find this. Thanks so much!!

 

Ch. VIII, Section 25, pg. 263, third paragraph, and the footnote on that page.

 

I don't suppose you're reading an online version, and that's why you can't find pg. 263? If so, you're probably reading the 4th edition, which is a bit out of date (1915). It's the version you'll generally find online since it's in the public domain. If you want to read the current edition of RONR, you'll need to actually get the book.

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I have purchased and downloaded the book to my Kindle, which unfortunately I do not have with me at the moment. This matter was just brought to my attention, and I was hoping to get my "ducks in a row" prior to tonight's meeting, so I wasn't rushed and wasn't looking things up on the Kindle at the last minute.   Are you willing to quote me the passage? Thank you.

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I have purchased and downloaded the book to my Kindle, which unfortunately I do not have with me at the moment. This matter was just brought to my attention, and I was hoping to get my "ducks in a row" prior to tonight's meeting, so I wasn't rushed and wasn't looking things up on the Kindle at the last minute.

 

The Kindle version you bought is probably also the 4th edition. No Kindle version of the current edition is currently available.

 

Are you willing to quote me the passage?

 

"...the rules cannot be suspended so as to give the right to vote to a nonmember" (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 263, lines 22-23).

 

"In contrast, the rules may be suspended to allow a nonmember to speak in debate" (pg. 263, footnote).

 

If you need something else, let me know. The rules I mentioned in Post #3 are scattered throughout the text and you weren't specific in your request, so I'm not sure whether Chris guessed right about what you wanted.

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I downloaded the Kindle version, which actually says "Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised."  The publication date is August 2011, so I assumed I was getting the most recent edition, but apparently this is the 9th edition.  I am new to all of this Kindle/online stuff, and thought it would be helpful to have something that was electronically searchable at the meeting.  Guess I was wrong.  :/

 

Thanks all of you for all of your help.

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I downloaded the Kindle version, which actually says "Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised."  The publication date is August 2011, so I assumed I was getting the most recent edition, but apparently this is the 9th edition.

 

The publication date must be referring to the publication of the Kindle version. Still, that's certainly an improvement. The 9th edition was published in 1990, so it's only a little over twenty years old instead of nearly a hundred.

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