Appointment as parliamentarian

[Guest Sylvia]

The Chair of an elected body appointed a Parliamentarian and the committee unanimously approved the appointment. The Chair resigned after 2 years and an interim Chair serves until the election of officers in August. Does the Parliamentarian complete his term or does it end with the resignation of the Chair or does he complete the term that the members approved?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

What do your bylaws say about the Parliamentarian?

[jstackpo]

Presuming there are no contracts involved, the parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the chair. p. 465

 

[Josh Martin]

12 hours ago, Guest Sylvia said:

The Chair of an elected body appointed a Parliamentarian and the committee unanimously approved the appointment. The Chair resigned after 2 years and an interim Chair serves until the election of officers in August. Does the Parliamentarian complete his term or does it end with the resignation of the Chair or does he complete the term that the members approved?

I’ll first assume there are no contracts involved. If there are contracts involved, any contractual issues are beyond the scope of this forum.

The parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the chair unless your rules provide otherwise. Additionally, in my opinion, even if your rules do provide otherwise, I would suggest that the parliamentarian should resign if requested to do so by the chair. The parliamentarian’s primary role is to advise the chair. As a result, it is critical that the chairman be permitted to select someone he has confidence in.

I also wonder if this “interim chair” business is specified in your bylaws.

Edited May 5, 2018 at 05:04 PM by Josh Martin

[J. J.]

39 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

I I’ll first assume there are no contracts involved. If there are contracts involved, any contractual issues are beyond the scope of this forum.

The parliamentarian serves at the pleasure of the chair unless your rules provide otherwise. Additionally, in my opinion, even if your rules do provide otherwise, I would suggest that the parliamentarian should resign if requested to do so by the chair. The parliamentarian’s primary role is to advise the chair. As a result, it is critical that the chairman be permitted to select someone he has confidence in.

I also wonder if this “interim chair” business is specified in your bylaws.

Offering no disagreement, I would go a bit further and would question the propriety of foisting a parliamentarian upon an unwilling chair.  The only possible exception would be if a position of "parliamentarian," with specific duties and powers, were created in the rules or bylaws.  In some groups, the "Parliamentarian" is an elected officer and defined as such in the bylaws.  That changes the definition pf a parliamentarian in RONR, p. 465 ff.

Recently, I said that I regard myself as a "political appointee," to the extent that I am attached to the presiding officer and that when the presiding officer leaves office, I leave with him.  I am often reappointed by the next presiding officer, but it his or her choice. 

[Gary Novosielski]

It makes sense to me for the parliamentarian to offer his resignation, and give the new chair the option of whether to accept it or not.