Nominations

[Guest William]

Guest here. First a little background information. I'm on a local rescue squad. The squad has bylaws, sometimes followed, with RONR as a guide when something is not addressed in the bylaws. I'm a board member now and also in a newly formed bylaws committee. So...I'm hoping to be one of the board members to get the squad to become "honest". Here is where I would like some input. When the squad votes at the annual meeting for officers, nominations are taken by secret ballot(written on small pieces paper and collected), the top 2 nominees are then voted on and the other nominees are discarded. That procedure is not in the bylaws. So, I referred to RONR and found that this "practice is unfortunate and should be discouraged". I believe I read in RONR  that discarding a nominee has, in effect, removed that persons right to be nominated. The last sentence is what I've tried to locate in RONR and am not able to. Any help in locating that, if I'm correct, along with other imput regarding nominations, will be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks!

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

I'm unaware of any "right to be nominated" in RONR. Perhaps you are thinking of the right to make nominations? The reason limiting nominees is frowned upon is that it may deepen divisions between factions and eliminate compromise choices.

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, Guest William said:

Guest here. First a little background information. I'm on a local rescue squad. The squad has bylaws, sometimes followed, with RONR as a guide when something is not addressed in the bylaws. I'm a board member now and also in a newly formed bylaws committee. So...I'm hoping to be one of the board members to get the squad to become "honest". Here is where I would like some input. When the squad votes at the annual meeting for officers, nominations are taken by secret ballot(written on small pieces paper and collected), the top 2 nominees are then voted on and the other nominees are discarded. That procedure is not in the bylaws. So, I referred to RONR and found that this "practice is unfortunate and should be discouraged". I believe I read in RONR  that discarding a nominee has, in effect, removed that persons right to be nominated. The last sentence is what I've tried to locate in RONR and am not able to. Any help in locating that, if I'm correct, along with other imput regarding nominations, will be greatly appreciated.  

There is no “right to be nominated,” but there is a right to make a nomination, and a right to vote for any eligible candidate, whether or not that person has been nominated.

If your organization wishes to limit members to voting for the top two candidates from the nominating ballot, such a rule would have to be in your bylaws.

Edited January 23, 2018 at 08:34 PM by Josh Martin

[J. J.]

16 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

There is no “right to be nominated,” but there is a right to make a nomination, and a right to vote for any eligible candidate, whether or not that person has been nominated.

If your organization wishes to limit members to voting for the top two candidates from the nominating ballot, such a rule would have to be in your bylaws.

Just for clarity, a special could permit dropping a nominee from the ballot (p. 441, fn.).  However, the "dropped nominee" could still be written-in. 

[Richard Brown]

3 hours ago, J. J. said:

Just for clarity, a special could permit dropping a nominee from the ballot (p. 441, fn.).  However, the "dropped nominee" could still be written-in. 

I suspect that JJ intended to say that "a special Rule of Order could permit dropping a nominee from the ballot . . . . "

[J. J.]

2 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

I suspect that JJ intended to say that "a special Rule of Order could permit dropping a nominee from the ballot . . . . "

And you would be correct.