Reconsider a motion

[Guest Chuck]

May a motion be reconsidered if it has been motioned, seconded, voted with 2 yes and 2 abstain. The fifth board member was not present. The President put the same motion back on the next meeting agenda citing that she wanted all board members present for the vote. Is this lawful? Is the action dead on the table? Thank you!

[Richard Brown]

Unless you have unusual bylaws which provide to the contrary, the motion was adopted. A vote of two to zero is clearly a majority vote. Abstentions are not votes, are not counted, and do not affect the outcome when a regular majority vote is required.

A motion to reconsider the vote at the next session is not in order. However, someone may move to rescind or amend the previously adopted motion. A motion to amend or resend something previously adopted requires a majority vote if previous notice has been given.  Without previous notice, it requires a two-thirds vote or the vote of a majority of the entire membership. In this case, the membership is the board, not the general membership. If your board consists of five members, it could be rescinded without previous notice if three of the five board members vote to rescind. Even if only three members are present, it could still be rescinded without notice if all three vote to resend, provided your Quorum requirement is satisfied.

[Chris Harrison]

The motion to Reconsider has a very strict time limit in which it can be made (RONR p. 316 ll. 22-31) and it is now too late to make it.

[Joshua Katz]

10 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

A motion to reconsider the vote at the next session is not in order.

Unless this happens to be a committee.

[Richard Brown]

8 minutes ago, Chris Harrison said:

The motion to Reconsider has a very strict time limit in which it can be made (RONR p. 316 ll. 22-31) and it is now too late to make it.

Thank you, Chris, for explaining why reconsideration would not be proper in this case.

[Richard Brown]

2 minutes ago, Joshua Katz said:

Unless this happens to be a committee.

True, but guest Chuck stated in the original post that this was a board meeting. It is probably good, though, to point out that the rules for reconsideration in a committee are different.

[Gary Novosielski]

8 hours ago, Guest Chuck said:

May a motion be reconsidered if it has been motioned, seconded, voted with 2 yes and 2 abstain. The fifth board member was not present. The President put the same motion back on the next meeting agenda citing that she wanted all board members present for the vote. Is this lawful? Is the action dead on the table? Thank you!

No, the motion passed 2-0, and presumably no motion was made at that meeting to Reconsider {§37) by either of the two members who voted on the prevailing side.

The motion passed, and at this point cannot be reconsidered.

However, to the extent that the motion has not already been carried out, it may still be altered or rescinded by the motions to Rescind/Amend Something Previously Adopted  {§35), which "require (a) a two-thirds vote, (b) a majority vote when notice of intent to make the motion, stating the complete substance of the proposed change, has been given at the previous meeting within a quarterly time interval or in the call of the present meeting, or (c) a vote of a majority of the entire membership—any one of which will suffice."