Guest E. Taylor Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:13 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:13 PM In a recent meeting of the committee for which I am secretary, we had situation that I do not know how to resolve. We had quorum, as required - 16 of 18 members present. After discussion, a member made a motion which was seconded. When vote was called, the motion received three Aye and three Nay votes. The other 10 members abstained. I am a RONR novice and haven't been able to find information on how to resolve this motion. Advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:21 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:21 PM In a recent meeting of the committee for which I am secretary, we had situation that I do not know how to resolve. We had quorum, as required - 16 of 18 members present. After discussion, a member made a motion which was seconded. When vote was called, the motion received three Aye and three Nay votes. The other 10 members abstained. I am a RONR novice and haven't been able to find information on how to resolve this motion. Advice? The motion was defeated. There's nothing left to resolve, procedurally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gödel Fan Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:44 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:44 PM I take the question to be about the minutes. In general, you would simply record that the motion was defeated. (My usual phrase is Mr. X moved to ____ . After debate, the motion was not adopted.) However, if you had a counted vote, you'll need the minutes to reflect the presence of quorum. In that case, you record how many vote were aye, how many were nay, and the names of enough of the abstainers to satisfy quorum. If you had a roll call vote, you can just record each person with their vote (or lack thereof, as the case may be). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Mervosh Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:50 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:50 PM I take the question to be about the minutes. In general, you would simply record that the motion was defeated. (My usual phrase is Mr. X moved to ____ . After debate, the motion was not adopted.) However, if you had a counted vote, you'll need the minutes to reflect the presence of quorum. In that case, you record how many vote were aye, how many were nay, and the names of enough of the abstainers to satisfy quorum. If you had a roll call vote, you can just record each person with their vote (or lack thereof, as the case may be). In a committee, I don't think they need to worry about the bolded part, since committees usually don't keep copious minutes, or at least they're not required to and aren't bound by all of the rules a regular assembly is bound by when it comes to minutes. The committee is just to keep a memorandum in the nature of minutes for their use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:53 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 04:53 PM To add to the answers above, a motion fails on a tie vote. From page 405 of RONR: "On a tie vote, a motion requiring a majority vote for adoption is lost, since a tie is not a majority." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest E. Taylor Posted October 5, 2015 at 05:17 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 05:17 PM Thank you all! Now I'll know how to record this motion and future ones, should they occur. I appreciate your prompt and clear responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Honemann Posted October 5, 2015 at 06:18 PM Report Share Posted October 5, 2015 at 06:18 PM However, if you had a counted vote, you'll need the minutes to reflect the presence of quorum. In that case, you record how many vote were aye, how many were nay, and the names of enough of the abstainers to satisfy quorum. This is true only in the case of a roll-call vote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted October 6, 2015 at 04:04 AM Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 at 04:04 AM I take the question to be about the minutes. In general, you would simply record that the motion was defeated. (My usual phrase is Mr. X moved to ____ . After debate, the motion was not adopted.) However, if you had a counted vote, you'll need the minutes to reflect the presence of quorum. In that case, you record how many vote were aye, how many were nay, and the names of enough of the abstainers to satisfy quorum. If you had a roll call vote, you can just record each person with their vote (or lack thereof, as the case may be). A roll call vote might require the names of enough abstainers, but why would normal counted rising or show of hands votes require the recording of names, which would arguably be unknown? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gödel Fan Posted October 6, 2015 at 12:20 PM Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 at 12:20 PM Likely because I made a mistake. Thank you both for the correction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted October 6, 2015 at 06:25 PM Report Share Posted October 6, 2015 at 06:25 PM Likely because I made a mistake. Thank you both for the correction.oops, how did I miss Dan's reply. Didn't mean to pile on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shmuel Gerber Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:58 AM Report Share Posted October 7, 2015 at 01:58 AM Thank you all! Now I'll know how to record this motion and future ones, should they occur. I appreciate your prompt and clear responses. In the future, make sure that the chair of the committee announces the result of the vote as soon as the vote is taken. It is highly improper to leave it to the secretary to decide, after the meeting is over, whether the motion was adopted or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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