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President out of order?


BabbsJohnson

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What does one do when...

RR are supposed to govern your monthly meetings

None of the board members follow them

The president makes a motion and a situation arises during discussion that a "point of order" needs to be made.

Can the president refuse to accept the point of order simply because she does not want anything to stop or hinder the motion she is trying to get to pass?

Example: 2/3 vote required but not met, instead she insists simple majority rule is good enough, and er motion passes.

What if the president does not recognize a rule has been broken and refuses to accept a point of order simply because she does not know it why it s being asked for, and argues the point or dismisses it as nonsense?

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Can the president refuse to accept the point of order simply because she does not want anything to stop or hinder the motion she is trying to get to pass?

Example: 2/3 vote required but not met, instead she insists simple majority rule is good enough, and er motion passes.

What if the president does not recognize a rule has been broken and refuses to accept a point of order simply because she does not know it why it s being asked for, and argues the point or dismisses it as nonsense?

 

No, of course it is not appropriate for a chair to rule a Point of Order not well taken based on her personal desire to have the motion adopted. The President's ruling should be based on her interpretation of the rules, not her stance on the underlying motion. The appropriate course of action if a member believes the President's ruling is incorrect is to Appeal from the decision of the chair, which places the decision in the hands of the assembly.

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RONR spells out several methods of dealing with a presiding officer who won't follow  the rules, but it takes knowledge of your options and the guts to do something about it in order to stop it.   The support of a few other members is pretty important, too!

 

Most (but not all) of the applicable provisions are in the chapter on Discipline (Chapter  XX) in Section 62 dealing with misconduct and dereliction of duty by an officer, especially the presiding officer.  Those provisions are on pages 650 - 654.

 

You won't find those provisions in RONR In Brief or in most other books on parliamentary procedure.  You need "The Right Book":  Robert's  Rules of Order Newly Revised 11th edition (abbreviated RONR):  http://www.robertsrules.com/book.html

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