Majority Vote of the entire membership

[Jenn]

A chapter has 50 members and 40 are present at a regular meeting.  They want to adopt a special rule without providing notice.  If all 40 vote in favor of the adoption, is that in order?  

 

[Bruce Lages]

It would certainly seem to be, since a majority of 50 is 26 - is there something else to your question?

[Bruce Lages]

Also, note that the RONR requirement to adopt a special rule of order without prior notice is a vote of a majority of the entire membership. which is not quite the same as a majority vote of the entire membership (your title). A majority vote is the affirmative vote of more than half of the members present and voting. If the entire membership is present, but not everyone votes, you might not achieve the number of affirmative votes necessary for it to be a majority vote of the entire membership. In your example, nothing less than 26 affirmative votes will satisfy the RONR requirement.

[Jenn]

Does the entire membership (50 members) need to be present?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

No.

[Richard Brown]

14 minutes ago, Jenn said:

Does the entire membership (50 members) need to be present?

The entire membership does not need to be present, but you must have a quorum present.  Unless your bylaws specify otherwise, it is a majority of the entire membership. In your case that is 26 members.  However, to adopt a special rule of order without notice requires the vote of a majority of the entire membership....  also 26 members.  So, if you have 26 members at the meeting, all 26 of them would have to vote YES on adopting the special rule.  If you have 40 members present, you would still need 26 YES votes to adopt the special rule of order.  You would need 26 YES votes regardless of how many members are present.