Co Sponsoring motions

[Guest Santiago Sanchez]

Is co sponsoring a motion allowed? Does a committee co sponsor, or is it an individual? If a committee, does it need a vote from the committee to submit? Or is the committee chair the one making the decision?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

RONR does not address "co sponsoring a motion". Any member can make a motion and any other member can second a motion. If the motion comes from a committee, it does not need a second if there is more than one person on the committee. The committee decides on a motion to be presented to the assembly by majority vote, not by a decision from the committee chair.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Is co sponsoring a motion allowed?

Does a committee co sponsor, or is it an individual?

If a committee, does it need a vote from the committee to submit?

Or is the committee chair the one making the decision?

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised [11th ed. 2011] uses the term "sponsor" a number of times, but not in relation to motions, but rather in relation to mass meetings.

 

So your question is unclear.

 

Q. What do YOU mean by "sponsor" or "co-sponsor"?

 

Under Robert's Rules of Order, "members make motions."

No sponsoring is necessary (whatever sponsoring is).

 

If your own rules demand that motions be sponsored, then you will have to look to those same rules to tell you the limits of sponsoring.

(E.g., sponsor, co-sponsor, co-co-sponsor, committee-based sponsoring, ad infinitum.)

 

Q. How is your sponsoring different from "making a motion"?

Q. How is your co-sponsoring different from "seconding a motion"?

 

If you can cite your applicable rule, I would be curious to see how the term is used.

If you can mention what kind of organization your organization is (e.g., labor union), I suspect that the term might follow the kind of organization.

[Josh Martin]

RONR does not address "co sponsoring a motion". Any member can make a motion and any other member can second a motion. If the motion comes from a committee, it does not need a second if there is more than one person on the committee. The committee decides on a motion to be presented to the assembly by majority vote, not by a decision from the committee chair.

I concur entirely with this, but since the OP asks about the committee "sponsoring" the motion, I would add the rather technical point that it is an individual member of the committee (usually, but not always, the committee chair) who actually makes the motion on behalf of the committee. As noted, this is only done if the committee has decided to recommend the motion to the parent assembly.