Making a Motion at a meeting to allow a committee to make the proposal to be voted on through mail vote?

[Guest Blake]

In RONR, if a Motion is made at the meeting to allow a standing committee the ability to propose a change to policy , with a specific date to be presented by (date is prior to the next meeting) to the House of Delegates, and then to be voted on by mail vote, is this in violation of RONR?  Looking for some guidance.

 

In a nutshell, the motion was made, with several changes needing to be reviewed for the motion to conform to policies in place.  The motion was then amended to allow the Planning Committee to thoroughly review the proposal, submit to the President and Secretary by a specific date, which is before the next scheduled meeting.  This amended motion of the proposal also included mailing the amended proposal to the delegates for a "mail vote". 

 

What rules apply or is this even allowed per RONR?  Is a motion allowed to be handled in this manner to be voted on by mail, or should it wait until the next scheduled meeting?

[jstackpo]

The committee can vote on its own motions without actually meeting  --  presumably by mail  --  p.499  --  or electronically (p. 98) if so authorized by the parent association.

 

But the parent organization cannot use a mail vote on the decision on the committee's recommendation(s) unless the bylaws authorize mail (or e-mail) voting.   Absent that authorization, you will have to wait until the next regular meeting of the House of Delegates.

[Guest Blake]

The parent organizations by-laws do authorize a mail vote.  With that said, do see anything we did incorrectly per RONR?

[jstackpo]

With that provision in place, the voting sounds OK.

 

However...  another problem:  with a meeting of delegates the people identified as delegates cease to be delegates when the meeting adjourns sine die - p. 237.   So if you are going to mail out the decision question prior to the next House meeting, how do you know who are the new delegates that will normally be selected and registered at the next house of delegates meeting.  The newbies are not actually "delegates" until the Credentials Committee has reported them and the CredComm report adopted - p. 615.  And this takes place at the start of the convention, not beforehand.