Guest Victoria Posted April 13, 2017 at 06:43 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 at 06:43 PM My organization has a special rule stating that members may introduce new motions from the floor, and once the motion has been made and seconded, "it shall be laid on the table until the next regular meeting." Our yearly schedule also includes a quarterly time interval. My question is: if a member introduces a new motion at the last meeting before the quarterly time interval, can it carry over to the first meeting after the quarterly time interval? Or would it need to be reintroduced in the first meeting and not addressed until the second? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hieu H. Huynh Posted April 13, 2017 at 10:11 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 at 10:11 PM Ultimately it is up to your organization to interpret your rules. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted April 13, 2017 at 10:20 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 at 10:20 PM I agree with Mr. Huynh, but the general way of calculating a quarterly time interval is whether the next meeting will take place by the end of the third month after the preceding meeting. If, for example, a meeting was on January 5, the next meeting will be within a quarterly time interval if it is held on or before April 30. See pages 89-90 of RONR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted April 13, 2017 at 11:03 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 at 11:03 PM 4 hours ago, Guest Victoria said: My organization has a special rule stating that members may introduce new motions from the floor, and once the motion has been made and seconded, "it shall be laid on the table until the next regular meeting." Our yearly schedule also includes a quarterly time interval. My question is: if a member introduces a new motion at the last meeting before the quarterly time interval, can it carry over to the first meeting after the quarterly time interval? Or would it need to be reintroduced in the first meeting and not addressed until the second? First of all, I would note that the effect of your rule appears to be that the motion is postponed until the next regular meeting, not laid on the table. The general rule is that a motion may be postponed to the next meeting provided that the next meeting is within a quarterly interval, and that motions "fall to the ground" if more than a quarterly time interval passes between regular meetings. Your society's rules take precedence over the rules in RONR, however, so if your rule provides that motions made in New Business are postponed to the next regular meeting, and no exceptions are made, then I would think that the rule applies regardless of the time between meetings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Ed Posted April 13, 2017 at 11:22 PM Report Share Posted April 13, 2017 at 11:22 PM Josh, thanks for posting your response. I was thinking this way, but I was not 100% sure because of the interval. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria H. Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:20 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:20 PM Thanks! That confirms what I thought. I'm glad to get an expert opinion because I am new to this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Honemann Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:33 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:33 PM 8 minutes ago, Victoria H. said: Thanks! That confirms what I thought. I'm glad to get an expert opinion because I am new to this. Well, I'd feel a lot more comfortable about all this if you could explain what you meant by: "Our yearly schedule also includes a quarterly time interval. My question is: if a member introduces a new motion at the last meeting before the quarterly time interval, can it carry over to the first meeting after the quarterly time interval? Or would it need to be reintroduced in the first meeting and not addressed until the second?" Frankly, I find this rather confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victoria H. Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:41 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:41 PM I'm in academia, so we don't meet over the summer. Our last meeting of the academic year will be the first week of May, and then the group won't meet again until mid-September. If a member brings up an item of new business at the May meeting, can it be laid on the table/postponed until the September meeting? Or will the QTI require that it be reintroduced at the September meeting, and laid on the table/postponed until October? To further complicate things, roughly half the membership turns over in the interval. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruce Lages Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:53 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:53 PM The quarterly time interval restriction in RONR would not allow a motion introduced in the first week of May to be postponed to a meeting in mid-September because that interval is greater than RONR's definition of a QTI. However, as Mr, Martin noted above, if your rules say the motion is postponed to the next regular meeting, then that rule supercedes the QTI rule in RONR and the motion should be brought up at the September meeting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstackpo Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:55 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 07:55 PM The only technically proper way to assure that the "May Motion" will come up in September (more than a quarter in the future) would be to simply refer it to a committee, with the assignment to report the motion back to your group at the September meeting. If you want things to sound good, ask the committee to prepare a recommendation as to what your group should do with the "May Motion". As you have figured out, it is improper to postpone to a time that far ahead, (and a complete misuse of "Table" to use it to "postpone"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Honemann Posted April 14, 2017 at 08:02 PM Report Share Posted April 14, 2017 at 08:02 PM 7 minutes ago, Bruce Lages said: The quarterly time interval restriction in RONR would not allow a motion introduced in the first week of May to be postponed to a meeting in mid-September because that interval is greater than RONR's definition of a QTI. However, as Mr, Martin noted above, if your rules say the motion is postponed to the next regular meeting, then that rule supercedes the QTI rule in RONR and the motion should be brought up at the September meeting. I agree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rev Ed Posted April 15, 2017 at 10:04 PM Report Share Posted April 15, 2017 at 10:04 PM On 4/14/2017 at 3:55 PM, jstackpo said: The only technically proper way to assure that the "May Motion" will come up in September (more than a quarter in the future) would be to simply refer it to a committee, with the assignment to report the motion back to your group at the September meeting. If you want things to sound good, ask the committee to prepare a recommendation as to what your group should do with the "May Motion". As you have figured out, it is improper to postpone to a time that far ahead, (and a complete misuse of "Table" to use it to "postpone"). I have to disagree - the group's own rules specifically state that the motion must be postponed until the next regular meeting. If the next regular meeting following the May meeting is in September, then that is the 'next regular meeting', and the group's own rules supersede RONR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Brown Posted April 15, 2017 at 10:50 PM Report Share Posted April 15, 2017 at 10:50 PM John, I agree with Rev Ed here . I believe the organization's own rule supersedes the rule in RONR on this point. Perhaps it is ultimately a matter of the society interpreting its own rule on the issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstackpo Posted April 16, 2017 at 01:06 AM Report Share Posted April 16, 2017 at 01:06 AM Right, I was being a strict Robertarian about "postpone", and not paying attention to the org's bylaws which may well relax the quarterly period limit. But that "may well" is up to the organization, not me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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