Questioning Candidates before Voting

[Guest D. A Vogel, Jr]

At the annual meeting of our organization, a slate of candidates is presented, a call for nominations to be closed is made, and unanimous consent is called for.  At what point is it in order to ask questions of the candidates on the slate?  (Formal and informal opportunities to ask questions are not available; the candidates are usually not known before the slate is presented at the annual meeting.)  Thank you.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

RONR does not address "questioning candidates before voting", so any such details would have to be found in your rules.

[Gary c Tesser]

At the annual meeting of our organization, a slate of candidates is presented, a call for nominations to be closed is made, and unanimous consent is called for.  At what point is it in order to ask questions of the candidates on the slate?  (Formal and informal opportunities to ask questions are not available; the candidates are usually not known before the slate is presented at the annual meeting.)  Thank you.

 

Do your organization's bylaws or other rules prescribe this strange process, or is it just a custom?

[jstackpo]

RONR does not address "questioning candidates before voting", so any such details would have to be found in your rules.

 

Well yes it, the book, does, sorta.   Nominations are debatable - see tinted page 18, #49.

 

It would be nice if the book said as much in the text, however. RONR/12?

 

And it might be clearer if it said "Nominees are debatable".

[Richard Brown]

The table of rules relating to Motions, on page 18 of the tinted pages, says that nominations are debatable.  So does the table of debatable motions on tinted page 43.  However, Section 46 of RONR, on nominations, does not make any mention of just how this debate on nominations should take place.  It says simply that a nomination is, in essence, a motion to fill a blank.  (RONR page 430).

[Dan Honemann]

The table of rules relating to Motions, on page 18 of the tinted pages, says that nominations are debatable.  So does the table of debatable motions on tinted page 43.  However, Section 46 of RONR, on nominations, does not make any mention of just how this debate on nominations should take place.  It says simply that a nomination is, in essence, a motion to fill a blank.  (RONR page 430).

 

As previously indicated (in this thread, for instance), I think that nominations are debatable only when it is in order to make one. The same is true, I think, with respect to suggestions for filling a blank.

[George Mervosh]

At the annual meeting of our organization, a slate of candidates is presented, a call for nominations to be closed is made, and unanimous consent is called for.  At what point is it in order to ask questions of the candidates on the slate?  (Formal and informal opportunities to ask questions are not available; the candidates are usually not known before the slate is presented at the annual meeting.)  Thank you.

 

As Mr. Honemann noted, nominations are debatable only when it is in order to make one.  So what you should do is at some point after the nominating committee presents its report and prior to nominations being closed, move to have a Q&A with the candidates setting whatever parameters you feel are best.  Since this suspends the traditional rules regarding debate it's my opinion such a format requires a 2/3 vote to adopt.

[Gary Novosielski]

And we've apparently left out a call for nominations from the floor, which should occur before nominations are closed.

[George Mervosh]

And we've apparently left out a call for nominations from the floor, which should occur before nominations are closed.

 

There's more problems than just that, which is why everyone chose to just answer the question.   

[Transpower]

If the vote is by mail, say, then RONR (11th ed.), p. 424, ll. 20-23 applies:  "Each nominee may be allowed to furnish for enclosure with the ballots a brief factual statement of his service and qualifications, provided that all nominees are accorded equal opportunity and space."  I think we can safely extrapolate from this that each floor nominee and each nominating committee nominee can therefore make a short speech regarding his qualifications, when the vote is not by mail, and subject to the rules of the organization.  RONR (11th ed.), p. 432, ll. 6-8, states "No second is required [after a floor nomination], but sometimes one or more members will second a nomination to indicate endorsement."  It seems to me that this right implies the option of a member or members to indicate their non-endorsement, as well.