who makes the decision

[Guest c james]

Who has the authority to make decisions for the organization when the organization is not in session?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Whoever the bylaws authorize to make such decisions.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

1 hour ago, Guest c james said:

Who has the authority to make decisions for the organization

when the organization is not in session?

Are you asking . . .

   • Who can spend organization's money without prior permission being given?

   • Who can sign contracts on behalf of the organization, without an adopted resolution authorizing the obligation?

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Under Robert's Rules of Order, the answer is "no one."

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Under you bylaws -- well, you must read who has such authorization. -- If anyone!

 

[Guest]

We have a situation where delegates were being selected to go to convention. We voted by ballot and the presiding officer was included in the vote. The tally committee did not report back before everyone had left the meeting. The problem is that before we had the next meeting the president had to turn in the delegate names by the due date. The president made a choice to break the tie because so she could send in the paper work. The president was not at the original meeting and as a result did not preside over the meeting. Was she wrong to make the decision in order to meet the deadline?

[Guest c james]

By the way the bylaws does not cover the situation.

[Weldon Merritt]

Absent some authorization in the bylaws, I would say the president had no authority to do what she did. But if the only alternative was to not send in the delegate list (thus leaving the organization unrepresentated), I probably woudl have done the same thing and hoped to have my action ratified later (and be prepared to face the consequences if it was not). But I probably would have at least consulted with the other officers before taking the action. That would not make the action any more proper, but it mighat increase the likelihood of later ratification,

[Dan Honemann]

6 hours ago, Weldon Merritt said:

Absent some authorization in the bylaws, I would say the president had no authority to do what she did. But if the only alternative was to not send in the delegate list (thus leaving the organization unrepresentated), I probably woudl have done the same thing and hoped to have my action ratified later (and be prepared to face the consequences if it was not). But I probably would have at least consulted with the other officers before taking the action. That would not make the action any more proper, but it mighat increase the likelihood of later ratification,

Setting aside the fact that it is unclear how many candidates did receive the requisite vote (they can't all have been tie votes, can they?), a major problem seems to be that the result of the voting was not announced at the election meeting, and for all we know has not as yet been announced at any meeting.

So what do you think the credentials committee at this convention should do when all of this is brought to its attention? I gather the "due date" has come and gone.

[Weldon Merritt]

4 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

Setting aside the fact that it is unclear how many candidates did receive the requisite vote (they can't all have been tie votes, can they?), a major problem seems to be that the result of the voting was not announced at the election meeting, and for all we know has not as yet been announced at any meeting.

So what do you think the credentials committee at this convention should do when all of this is brought to its attention? I gather the "due date" has come and gone.

I agree about the major problem. A lot of issues can be avoided by just making sure election results are announced promptly. My response was based on the assumption that the only alternative to the president breaking the tie would be for the organization to go unrepresented, which admitedly may not be a valid assumption. Certainly, if there were any other way to correct the problem before the convention (e.g., by calling a special meeting), I would recommend doing that.

As to what the credentials committee might do, my experience has been that the committee generally takes thr delegate list at face value. Buit if there were a challenge to the delegate list submitted for this entity, it seem to me that it would be handled like any other challenge. The credentials committee would report the challenge, and it would be decided by the assembly (with the challenged delagates not voting on the challemge).

[Gary Novosielski]

On 4/12/2016 at 9:54 PM, Guest said:

We have a situation where delegates were being selected to go to convention. We voted by ballot and the presiding officer was included in the vote. The tally committee did not report back before everyone had left the meeting. The problem is that before we had the next meeting the president had to turn in the delegate names by the due date. The president made a choice to break the tie because so she could send in the paper work. The president was not at the original meeting and as a result did not preside over the meeting. Was she wrong to make the decision in order to meet the deadline?

Yes.