Serving on a committee

[Guest Guest_jacindaj]

Does RONR provide a definition of "serve"? I'm the Nominating Committee chairman for my local alumni chapter. We have an upcoming election where we have deemed some candidates to be ineligible because they have not met the requirements for the office as listed in the bylaws. One of the requirements is as follows:

 

"Must have served on a minimum of 2 committees and/or projects"

 

To determine eligibility, the committee received the list of committees and its members from the Membership Chair. If a candidate was not listed as a member of more than one committee, they were deemed ineligible. Was this valid? Does simply being a member of a committee mean they have "served" or must there be specific work involved?

[Gödel Fan]

Your organization will need to interpret its own bylaws, but I cannot think of any definition of "served on a committee" other than committee membership.

[Josh Martin]

Does RONR provide a definition of "serve"? I'm the Nominating Committee chairman for my local alumni chapter. We have an upcoming election where we have deemed some candidates to be ineligible because they have not met the requirements for the office as listed in the bylaws. One of the requirements is as follows:

"Must have served on a minimum of 2 committees and/or projects"

To determine eligibility, the committee received the list of committees and its members from the Membership Chair. If a candidate was not listed as a member of more than one committee, they were deemed ineligible. Was this valid? Does simply being a member of a committee mean they have "served" or must there be specific work involved?

To serve on a committee, in the parliamentary sense, means to be a member of the committee. What it means to serve on a "project," on the other hand, is not defined in RONR.

But where does the Nominating Committee get the idea that it has the authority to deem candidates to be ineligible? Do your bylaws grant it that authority? So far as RONR is concerned, the Nominating Committee's role is to make nominations for each office, and it should obviously nominate people it believes are eligible. It has no authority to review the eligibility of nominations made by others.

[Guest jacindaj]

To serve on a committee, in the parliamentary sense, means to be a member of the committee. What it means to serve on a "project," on the other hand, is not defined in RONR.

But where does the Nominating Committee get the idea that it has the authority to deem candidates to be ineligible? Do your bylaws grant it that authority? So far as RONR is concerned, the Nominating Committee's role is to make nominations for each office, and it should obviously nominate people it believes are eligible. It has no authority to review the eligibility of nominations made by others.

Here are the responsibilities of the Nominations/Elections Committee as described in the bylaws:

• Accept all nomination for the vacant offices

• Present the Nominees to the Recording Secretary for certification

• Prepare a Ballot with the slate of Nominees that have been certified by the Recording Secretary.

• Oversee the Election

• Count the votes and certify the Election

• Other required duties

 

If we have overstepped our authority, please let me know. If everyone should be on the ballot, we still have time to make that change. 

[Josh Martin]

Here are the responsibilities of the Nominations/Elections Committee as described in the bylaws:

• Accept all nomination for the vacant offices

• Present the Nominees to the Recording Secretary for certification

• Prepare a Ballot with the slate of Nominees that have been certified by the Recording Secretary.

• Oversee the Election

• Count the votes and certify the Election

• Other required duties

If we have overstepped our authority, please let me know. If everyone should be on the ballot, we still have time to make that change.

As I have noted, the duties of the Nominating Committee in RONR are simply to make nominations. It has nothing to do with preparing the ballot. The "Nominations/Elections Committee" in your bylaws is clearly something completely different, and it may well be appropriate for the committee to review whether the nominations it receives are eligible.