WHO MAY MAKE A NOMINATION

[Guest William Holt]

I have been searching the 2011 copy of Robert's and cannot seem to find specifics on who may make a nomination for office.  The situation in question is this:

 

An organization has provision for election of a representative from each of three geographic regions.  The constitution of the organization specifically limits the voting for the regional representative to the organization members of that region.  Can someone from outside that particular region nominate anyone to run for office as the representative of that region.

 

Please provide any references to Robert's as related to this question.

 

Thank you for any assistance that you may provide.

 

William Holt

[Richard Brown]

It is up to your organization to interpret its own bylaws.  We cannot do that for you here as it is outside the scope of this forum.

 

As far as RONR is concerned, only members of the body which is meeting have the right to make motions and to vote.... and to make nominations.   

 

For a citation, I would refer you to page 3, lines 1 - 15.   In addition, the discussion on nominations and elections on pages 430-432 makes it pretty clear to me that only members have the right to make nominations.

[Edgar Guest]

The constitution of the organization specifically limits the voting for the regional representative to the organization members of that region.

 

While it would be logical to assume that only members who can vote can make nominations, and while that may have been the intent of the rule in your constitution, it's entirely possible that your constitution does not strictly prohibit someione from one region nominating a candidate in another region. Of course the members are free not to vote for anyone nominated by someone outside the region. But what if that person is the best person for the job? Would you not vote for him just because of who nominated him? In other words, it's probably not worth worrying about who did the nominating (though you might want to tighten up your bylaws).

[George Mervosh]

I think it would require a suspension of the rules to permit the outside member from making a nomination.

 

For example, I'd love to nominate Richard Brown as President of the LA Association of Parliamentarians,  or even NAP District 6 director, but just because we're both members of NAP doesn't mean I get to do so since I can't vote in his state/district.

[Edgar Guest]

I think it would require a suspension of the rules to permit the outside member from making a nomination.

 

For example, I'd love to nominate Richard Brown as President of the LA Association of Parliamentarians,  or even NAP District 6 director, but just because we're both members of NAP doesn't mean I get to do so since I can't vote in his state/district.

 

But Districts and Associations are clearly defined in the bylaws of the NAP. It's not clear that, in the case of Mr. Holt's organization, the fact that a member might live in one region makes him a member of that region (or even that regions have members in the first place).

[jstackpo]

I think it would require a suspension of the rules to permit the outside member from making a nomination.

 

Oh, I dunno...   This strikes me as (yet another)  example of the recurrent debate here as to whether a member who has some right (properly) taken away (by bylaws) automatically retains all the other rights of membership or whether such retention should be explicitly specified in the bylaws.

 

I think the consensus here it that it is automatic (but RONR/12 should include that statement).  Thus an "out-of-region" member could freely nominate someone from "another" region, even though he couldn't vote for him/her.