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president ruling motion out of order


Guest derrick johnson

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Guest derrick johnson

can a president rule a properly made written motion out of order before formerly presenting it to the body..if that is done the body has no way of knowing the motion was ever presented to the chair for consideration and the body cant vote to over-rule the chair's decision/

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Oh dear....  the catch with what you wrote is that the president doesn't "present" the, or (almost) any, motion, written or otherwise, to the assembly.   That is the job of the member to make the motion.    After that, everybody (who was paying attention) knows what the motion is; it can be ruled out of order at that point by the chairman.

 

The president may well get a copy of the motion ahead of time (particularly if it is long or controversial) but it still has to be made by a member before it can be acted upon.  The president jumped the gun.

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I agree with Dr. Stackpole's comments.  If the president is insisting on written motions (or even not insisting on them) and is ruling some out of order without the actual motion having been stated or read to the assembly, he is definitely out of order.  As Dr. Stackpole pointed out, motions are made by members openly in a meeting.  The chair has no right to prohibit a person from making his motion.  If the motion is out of order, he can rule it out of order after it is made publicly, when everyone has heard it, and his ruling can be appealed.

 

You can make a point of order that he has no right to rule motions out of order before they have been stated to the assembly.  If he overrules the point of order, appeal his ruling to the assembly.  

 

He also has no right to insist that motions be tendered to him prior to being presented to the assembly.... unless your bylaws specify that motions shall be handled that way.

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Also, if the motion is passed along in advance then the President could assist the member with wording, or when the motion can be made, etc. which is not only beneficial (i.e. making sure the meeting runs smoothly), but may help stop a motion from being out of order.  But a decision on whether or not a motion is out of order or not can only be made at a meeting.

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can a president rule a properly made written motion out of order before formerly presenting it to the body..if that is done the body has no way of knowing the motion was ever presented to the chair for consideration and the body cant vote to over-rule the chair's decision/

 

I probably shouldn't ask, but why are you presenting motions to the President ahead of the meeting?

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