Motions that don't appear on the agenda

[Guest Gillian Rutherford]

I am the secretary for a volunteer organization which tries to follow ROR.  At a recent general meeting, one of the committee chairs introduced a motion that was not mentioned as a topic on the meeting's agenda.  She explained what she wanted, made a motion and it was carried by the meeting, which had a generous quorum.  Now some people who were not at the meeting are complaining because they did not attend the meeting and would have voted against the motion.  The motion concerns an issue that has been contentious for the group in the past, so we could have/should have anticipated dissension.  I don't know whether the committee chair brought the motion up in this way on purpose in order to avoid discussion or not. But at the moment we have a carried motion that is being contested.  What should the process be from here?

[Dan Honemann]

I am the secretary for a volunteer organization which tries to follow ROR.  At a recent general meeting, one of the committee chairs introduced a motion that was not mentioned as a topic on the meeting's agenda.  She explained what she wanted, made a motion and it was carried by the meeting, which had a generous quorum.  Now some people who were not at the meeting are complaining because they did not attend the meeting and would have voted against the motion.  The motion concerns an issue that has been contentious for the group in the past, so we could have/should have anticipated dissension.  I don't know whether the committee chair brought the motion up in this way on purpose in order to avoid discussion or not. But at the moment we have a carried motion that is being contested.  What should the process be from here?

 

Ignore the complaints.

[Chris Harrison]

Unless this particular motion required previous notice or you have a specialized rule that only items of business which are on the agenda can be conducted no rule has been broken.  Basically if a member chooses not to attend a meeting they are taking their chances that something will come up which they will have a strong opinion on.  If they continue to complain simply point out that if want to have a say in what goes on then they need to be at the meetings.  They may not like it but they will learn the hard way that the YSYL rule often applies to absentees as well.

[Guest HT]

If the members in question are asking you, as secretary, what their options are in trying to undo the action they object to, I would think the answer would be a Motion to Rescind (or Amend Something Previously Adopted) if it is an action that is still capable of rescission or modification as of the next meeting.

[Guest Edgar]

 . . . one of the committee chairs introduced a motion that was not mentioned as a topic on the meeting's agenda. 

 

Note, too, that, per RONR, an agenda isn't the agenda until it's adopted at the meeting and, even then, it's subject to further amendment. See FAQ #14.

[Gary Novosielski]

The purpose of an agenda is to facilitate the conduct of the meeting, not to protect the rights of absentees.  In fact it cannot serve the latter prupose, since any number of new items could be added to the agenda after the meeting is called to order.

 

Some motions, according to the rules in RONR, and perhaps your own rules, require previous notice, and that is the method by which potential absentees are warned that a particular question is likely to come up.  If this motion was not one of those few types, then it was properly adopted, and the complainers should be reminded that when one snoozes, one loses.