Voting

[Guest alabama]

When voting on new members to join an organization by secret ballet; a handful of members do not vote them 'in'; are we able to ask/create discussion on the members and why anyone in the membership doesn't agree with them joining? (Note: These candidates have already been approved by the president of organization, the secret committee, and the board members.)

[Chris Harrison]

Was there not discussion among the members prior to the vote taking place?  That would have been the time for any "nay-sayers" (or "yea-sayers" for that matter) to say their piece if they were so inclined.

[Joshua Katz]

I don't quite see what the problem is, which suggests I'm missing something.  That you hold a vote on membership tells me that the organization recognizes there can be reasonable disagreements in any given case, and it lets a vote decide the matter (by some threshold).  Why is it a problem that the vote is less than unanimous?

Anyway, while I agree the same to express these views would have been in debate prior to the vote, I'd add that the nay-sayers were under no obligation to say why they were opposed, and likely wouldn't do so if they were outvoted and didn't think they had much of a chance of persuading anyone.  

I don't think there's any procedure you can use at a later meeting to have this debate (and I don't think it would be a good idea if these new people are now members, and hence participate at your meetings...).  Certainly there's nothing you can do to make them cough up their reasons for voting no.  You might try asking them outside the meeting context, if you can guess who they are.  Or you can take each member out to dinner, in turn, and softly broach the subject...that's just my way of saying there's no parliamentary tool to accomplish what you want, but you might be able to find out what you want to know socially.

[Gary Novosielski]

4 hours ago, Guest alabama said:

When voting on new members to join an organization by secret ballet; a handful of members do not vote them 'in'; are we able to ask/create discussion on the members and why anyone in the membership doesn't agree with them joining? 

No.  While members are free, during debate, to explain their support or opposition to a motion, members cannot be compelled to explain the reasons for their vote.