Unruly/disrespectful speaker who has floor. As chair can I end his rant?

[Guest Bob]

As a chair. I have a very loud and unruly member who is also very disrespectful to others, when he gets the floor and I try to calm him down all he says is "I have the floor". Do I have the right as the chairperson to end his "Floor" and tell him to sit down?

[Gary Novosielski]

You not only have the right, you have the duty to maintain decorum.

 

 

§61. DISCIPLINE OF MEMBERS AND GUESTS

 

...

[W]hen a member repeatedly questions the motives of other members whom he mentions by name, or persists in speaking on completely irrelevant matters in debate—the chair normally should first warn the member; but with or without such a warning, the chair or any other member can “call the member to order.” If the chair does this, he says, “The member is out of order and will be seated.” Another member making the call rises and, without waiting to be recognized, says, “Mr. President, I call the member to order,” then resumes his seat. If the chair finds this point of order (23) well taken, he declares the offender out of order and directs him to be seated, just as above.

 

You (or any member) can and should do that much.  However, if the member had the floor at the time (as opposed to merely interrupting others), you should then put the question to the assembly as to whether the member should be allowed to continue speaking.

 

The chair can call the member to order and interrupt his speech, and the assembly by majority can "de-recognize" him, so to speak.

[DanielEHayes]

Going further into the matter, read RONR(11th ed.) pp.645-48,ll.21-7. it covers what Mr Novosielski mentions above, but even goes so far as to getting into expelling them from membership(takes a two-thirds vote) in that same meeting if they are too unruly.  Be aware that your bylaws will trump these procedures found in RONR relative to discipline so pay attention to them if there are any.

[Edgar Guest]

read RONR(11th ed.) pp.645-48,ll.21-7.

I think the proper citation would be: RONR (11th ed.) p.645, l.21 - p.648, l.7 (though pp. 645-648 would be sufficient).

 

Referring to pp.645-48 and to ll.21-7 could be confusing.

[DanielEHayes]

Thanks Mr. Guest I was unsure of how to cite lines from multiple pages as RONR(11th ed.), p. vii only covers citing a single page but I was trying not to digress in this thread as I have a tendency to do. Thank you for answering a question that was on my mind.