complaints directed toward past board/ other present members

[Cuibono]

Isn't complaining about past board members or unprofessionally pointing the finger to other current board members necessarily a violation of procedure?

 

The context: I attended a convention of a group that I was considering joining as a regular member not as a member of the board.  I was permitted to attend their plenary session.  There was no parliamentarian and the rules just seemed to be whatever the president wanted to do at the time.  It was incredibly unprofessional.  One speaker instead of giving his required report instead took the liberty of issues ad hominem attacks on the outgoing president.  

 

In my own organization, the previous executive board left us in a financial lurch.  But during board meetings, all some members do is complain about how they were left in a lurch.  I've told the presiding officer that procedurally this is inappropriate (and really not a great idea if our minutes can be accessed by others, like if the organization were t be sued).  Can you give me some guidance as to how I can state this more authoritatively?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

See "Decorum in Debate" in RONR 11th ed., pp. 391-394.

[Joshua Katz]

On a minor point, note that minutes should not include the content of discussion.

You can raise a point of order at a meeting in place or, or in addition to, raising the issue with the chair. Personal attacks are out of order, as is debate not on the pending motion.

 

[Gary Novosielski]

Complaints against former members are unlikely to be germane to any motion on what to do currently, and debate without a motion is not allowed to begin with.

I sympathise with your dilemma.  I have actually turned down membership on one board because of their obvious disdain for Robert's Rules.  It almost always results in a colossal waste of one's time.

Edited August 2, 2018 at 02:47 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Guest Zev]

The resolution of the original problem will have something to do with whether (Mr/Mrs?) Cuibono can convince this organization to accept Robert's Rules of Order as authoritative. They will benefit greatly if they can come to terms with it.