Guest Stephen W Posted October 1, 2014 at 08:23 AM Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 at 08:23 AM I am part of a college Student Government. During our meetings, the President and Vice-President speak a lot during debate. Can I object to them speaking, during debate as they have a place on the agenda under executive reports and they are not seated members of the assembly? (The President and Vice-President are not Speaker or Pro-tem in this case. Those positions are separate.) I was told this is the case, but I cannot find it in my 11th edition of Robert's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Goldsworthy Posted October 1, 2014 at 08:51 AM Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 at 08:51 AM Did you think that the RIGHTS OF MEMBERSHIP (here, the right to debate) is LOST when one is elected to the office of President, or Vice-President? The P and VP are still members (I assume).They still retain the right to debate. So, no, you cannot object to a member exercising the rights of membership. However, the chair's case does contain one wrinkle:The chair is supposed to establish an air of impartiality.As such, the chair does not debate; or when the chair chooses to debate a given item of business, the chair yields the gavel to the VP, or to another (still neutral) member.This is a rule of Robert's Rules of Order you might try to enforce. Beware that your organization might be operating under the "relaxed" rules for "small boards and committees" of Robert's Rules of Order -- where the chair indeed may well be the most active participant.THAT is a rule, too, in Robert's Rules of Order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stephen W Posted October 1, 2014 at 10:15 AM Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 at 10:15 AM Did you think that the RIGHTS OF MEMBERSHIP (here, the right to debate) is LOST when one is elected to the office of President, or Vice-President? The P and VP are still members (I assume).They still retain the right to debate. So, no, you cannot object to a member exercising the rights of membership. Thank you for your input. However, I am afraid I did not make my question entirely clear. In this case, the relationship between the President/VP and the Assembly (the body operating under Robert's) is similar to that of the US President and Congress, except that either the President or the VP have to be present during the Assembly's meetings. The President and Vice-President in this case cannot vote, make motions, introduce legislation, or do anything along these lines. They are from the executive branch, while the assembly is a different branch. They resigned their positions as voting members of the assembly (if they had any) upon assumption of their respective positions. The Chair and Vice Chair are different positions than the President and VP in this case and are entirely unrelated except that the Chair is the official communicator for the Assembly to the President. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Honemann Posted October 1, 2014 at 11:34 AM Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 at 11:34 AM As far as the rules in RONR are concerned, members of an assembly have all of the rights of membership, and nonmembers have no rights at all. Any variation from this norm must be found in your own governing documents. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgar Guest Posted October 1, 2014 at 12:00 PM Report Share Posted October 1, 2014 at 12:00 PM Can I object to them speaking, during debate . . . ? Yes. A two-thirds vote (or unanimous consent) is required to suspend the rules and permit non-members to speak in debate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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