Can the President also hold the Secretary position or is this too much power

[Guest J. Hagan H]

We have elections coming up and I am pretty sure our President is stepping down and pretty sure the other members will appoint another person who also holds the Secretary position.  I have looked online and found several references to it not being allowed as it will give the President/Secretary all the power in and out of the meetings.

 

[Kim Goldsworthy]

We have elections coming up and I am pretty sure our President is stepping down and pretty sure the other members will appoint another person who also holds the Secretary position.

I have looked online and found several references to it not being allowed as it will give the President/Secretary all the power in and out of the meetings.

"Stepping down"?

 

Do you mean _____ ?

(a.) stepping down early, prior to the end of the term of office?

(b.) stepping down at the next election cycle, and taking a breather from the stress of being president?

 

Why isn't the vice president involved in this scenario? Where did the VP go?

And how did the Secretary get so involved, above the VP?

 

And what is this "appoint" business? What ever happened to good old fashioned voting?

 

A lot of wild card variables, here.

[Guest J. Hagan H]

Stepping down at elections - not accepting another term.

 

We have no vice president.

 

I said appoint and I meant vote.

 

Sorry for the confusion.

[Chris Harrison]

I have looked online and found several references to it not being allowed as it will give the President/Secretary all the power in and out of the meetings.

Those references are not in alignment with RONR because RONR neither says nor suggests any such thing.  While it very well may be a bit difficult in the long term for someone to pull double duty (presiding and taking the minutes) RONR doesn't forbid it.  Also, these references appear to have an inflated view of the President and Secretary's powers. 

 

The Secretary really has no power because although one of his main jobs is to take the minutes the assembly should be reviewing, making any corrections necessary, and then approving them so unless the assembly falls down on their job the minutes should be reflecting only what actually happened at the meeting.  Granted, the President does have some power but ultimately that power only exists because the members granted it and they do have the ability to take it away.  So in other words, if someone being both President and Secretary gives him "all the power in and out of the meetings" that is probably because the members are allowing him to wield more power than he actually has.₁

 

₁Of course that is assuming the bylaws don't grant the President and Secretary some extraordinary powers in which case all bets may be off.

[jstackpo]

Those references are not in alignment with RONR because RONR neither says nor suggests any such thing.  While it very well may be a bit difficult in the long term for someone to pull double duty (presiding and taking the minutes) RONR doesn't forbid it. 

 

That may a bit of an overstatement.  P. 22 notes that the "minimum essential officers" are a presiding officer and a secretary.  That sure sounds as though RONR thinks they should be separate people. 

 

I agree that the one person would be sorely overworked, however.

[judelynnh]

I do not want this person to hold both offices but the others might not care

[Richard Brown]

That may a bit of an overstatement.  P. 22 notes that the "minimum essential officers" are a presiding officer and a secretary.  That sure sounds as though RONR thinks they should be separate people. 

 

I agree that the one person would be sorely overworked, however.

 

Some state corporation laws also require that the president and secretary be two different people, primarily for the reason that the secretary must sometimes authenticate the president's signature on documents such as bank resolutions.

 

I think parliamentarians and attorneys generally hold the view that it is not a good idea, for various reasons, for the president and the secretary to be the same person. 

[Gary Novosielski]

It is an abysmally bad idea to have the presiding officer and the recording officer (the two minimum officers for any meeting) be the same person.  But it's not outright prohibited by RONR. 

 

I think it ought to be, but nobody asked me what I think.