Hijacked meeting without prior notice

[Guest J Clinton]

If a regular  club meeting with an agenda has already started, can an Executive Committee take over that meeting and turn in into

a meeting to remove an officer without an agenda and without any prior notice to the membership to change the regular meeting?

[Rev Ed]

No.  Read Chapter 20 of RONR to see how to remove an officer/member according to RONR.

Also, if the meeting is a meeting of the general membership, then they (the general, or 'regular', members) are the ones running the meeting, not the Executive Committee.

[Richard Brown]

Not based on the rules in RONR .  First, the executive committee has no business taking over the meeting. Second, depending on the wording in your bylaws about terms of office, a motion to remove an officer, according to the rules and RONR, might require previous notice and a trial.

Disciplinary procedures are very complex and are covered in the 26 pages of chapter XX of RONR.

[Guest J. Clinton]

OK, that was how I understood it prior to the meeting.  Our by-laws state that removal of an officer must take place at a Business meeting.  There was a business meeting on the agenda for the end of the regular meeting.  When I told them they must wait until the end of the regular meeting - that we were going to stick to the agenda, they refused and took over the meeting anyway, causing chaos.  They distributed a grievance letter regarding the officer that was 5 pages long and insisted that everyone read it and digest it in 10 minutes prior to taking a vote to remove the officer.  Many people were very upset - some left and some who stayed objected loudly, but they insisted on taking the vote anyway.  This seems totally illegal to me and I wonder if there is any action I can take for redress.

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Perhaps the members of the executive committee could be removed from office (see FAQ #20).

[Richard Brown]

10 minutes ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

Perhaps the members of the executive committee could be removed from office (see FAQ #20).

Thanks for posting the link to FAQ #20, Hieu.  I couldn't figure out how to do it using this cell phone. And since my wife had dinner ready, i knew better than to sit here fiddling with my phone trying to figure out how to do it. I might be a bit slow to learn some things, but I learned a long time ago that it isn't very smart to keep fiddling with whatever I'm fiddling with when she says "Dinner is ready"! 

[Joshua Katz]

44 minutes ago, Guest J. Clinton said:

There was a business meeting on the agenda for the end of the regular meeting.

I don't know what you mean by this.  What is a regular meeting, if not a time to conduct business?

It sounds like you were chairing the meeting.  If so, you can probably be more aggressive in dealing with people trying to take over your meeting.  Study the procedures for offenses during a meeting.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

What a muddle. I assume the "business meeting" was a series of orders to be taken up together. At any rate, a club meeting is NOT an Executive Committee meeting and committee members have no greater power there than any club member. Next time, the best option is to obtain unanimous consent for a recess, then take the hijackers aside and find out what their demands are.

[Guest J. Clinton]

It was a toastmasters meeting - a regular meeting is when people come to practice speaking  They have prepared speeches to give- business is conducted at the

end and it is at the end of the agenda so if there are guests present they can leave.  I appreciate your advice.  I was pretty aggressive.

Should I have called the police?  I haven't found the procedure of offenses during a meeting yet.

[Joshua Katz]

Now I understand.  Were you the Toastmaster?  Regardless, your 'regular meetings' are not meetings in the RONR sense, and no business can be validly conducted during them.  As such, the procedures for offenses during a meeting (645-49) are not applicable.  Nothing in RONR, really, is applicable - but Toastmasters has bylaws, and your chapter may have your own, that should contain some applicable rules to disruptions during a 'meeting.'  

What is applicable, though, is strong presiding.  I have never had to call the police, although I considered it a possibility one time when I had to interpret rather spotty rules about who may vote - I have found that resisting anger, restrained use of the gavel, and adopting a no-compromise, no-discussion stance can resolve a surprising number of situations.  By aggressive, I really mean assertive.  If you let yourself get angry, or if you debate with people disrupting a meeting, things tend to go wrong.  I once watched a rather skilled chair (well, not terribly skilled at parliamentary procedure, but very skilled at presiding) calm down roughly 1,000 people after a candidate for a board position took advantage of the fact that the convention was televised nationally to perform a strip show.  I don't think I could have done that, but apparently it can be done.  

I imagine the general evaluation must have been interesting that night.  

[Guest J. clinton]

Thank you   that was a funny story - I needed a good laugh too!  Yes, I guess I've learned that one can insist even

more than I did and it takes real experience to handle a situation like that.  I would prefer not to have more experiences

like that one though because it was very ugly.  I don't like ugly - especially at a meeting I go to have fun.

[Guest J. clinton]

By the way, Toastmasters does apply Robert's Rules  - it is the standard and it is stated in their Governing Documents.  Further, they do

specify in the governing documents that to remove an officer it is done in a Business meeting.  So under the circumstances it seems that

they would at least have to move to suspend the rules in order to change the purpose of the meeting.   Of make a motion and take a vote

to change the purpose of the meeting.? 

[Joshua Katz]

I realize Toastmasters uses RONR - as you may have guessed from my post, I'm a member (even won my chapter Table Topics competition one year).  However, RONR provides the rules of order for meetings in the RONR sense - which means a meeting where business may validly be conducted.  I don't think it would be close to in order to do either of the things you mention - changing the purpose or suspending the rules - any more than it would be in order to do that while sitting around your kitchen table with a few members.  Toastmasters may call the regularly scheduled events where speeches are given and evaluations conducted a meeting, just like I call it a meeting when I arrange a time to meet with a professor, but that doesn't make it a place and time to conduct the business of the organization.  That is reserved for your business meetings.  

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Guest J. Clinton, I am very familiar with this organization and its governing documents. If you sign up to be a member of this forum, I can send you the appropriate rules on disciplinary proceedings.

[J. Clinton]

Done   - Thank you - I appreciate it.