Suspend the Agenda

[Guest lonnie]

Good afternoon. 

How do you suspend the agenda?

[Joshua Katz]

As a general rule, you move to suspend anything for a specific purpose, not just for its own sake. So with an adopted agenda in place, you might move to suspend the rules in order to take up X business item. Or you could, instead, move to amend the agenda. What is it that you're trying to do? That might be a simpler place to start.

[Guest Lonnie]

We have 2 groups 

1. The Board of Directors 

2. The Shareholders - Owners 

 

the Organizations Chairman has put an agenda together for our Shareholder meeting with no input from the Shareholders and items the Shareholders want to address are not included. 

He has a history of using RR against past Board Members and Shareholders. 

In the past one group Suspended the Agenda and voted a new Chair of the meeting to ensure that all concerns were voiced and voted on. 

[Joshua Katz]

If the rules in RONR apply (which is likely not the case), an agenda is something a body adopts for itself, at its meeting. A chair can propose one, but until it's adopted, it is not the agenda. When the agenda is up for consideration, you can move to amend it to include items on which you want to make motions.

If your state's corporate law applies, the situation is likely different, and you'll need to consult an attorney familiar with your corporate code. Laws often limit the business shareholders can take up at a shareholder meeting or impose procedural hurdles to get an item on the agenda.

The agenda, as an aside, is not related to who presides. 

[jstackpo]

Coupla points...

1)  An agenda, no matter who put it together, has no force unless or until the body adopts it at the meeting.   When it is up for adoption, any member present can move to amend the agenda by proposing to add new items.  Doesn't make much sense to "suspend" an agenda  --  just either don't adopt it in the first place, or amend it to your liking.

2)  Adopting an agenda does NOT -- repeat NOT -- prevent any member from introducing an item of new business (not mentioned in the agenda) when the body reaches "New Business" in the standard order of business.

As J. Katz noted, the rules for a shareholder's meeting may differ from RONR's rules -- check with a lawyer.

[Richard Brown]

42 minutes ago, Guest Lonnie said:

We have 2 groups 

1. The Board of Directors 

2. The Shareholders - Owners 

 

the Organizations Chairman has put an agenda together for our Shareholder meeting with no input from the Shareholders and items the Shareholders want to address are not included. 

He has a history of using RR against past Board Members and Shareholders. 

In the past one group Suspended the Agenda and voted a new Chair of the meeting to ensure that all concerns were voiced and voted on. 

RONR provides a procedure in chapter XX (the chapter on discipline) for removing the chair from presiding at a particular meeting.  It's covered on pages 651-653. The first full paragraph on page 652 is the procedure you would most likely use if the chair is the regular presiding officer. 

As to the agenda, if one has been adopted but the members don't want to follow it, they can still amend it with a 2/3 vote . I'm not sure without doing some research if the agenda can simply be "suspended", but I don't think that would be appropriate. It can be amended , though, to drastically change it or remove most or even all of the items on it.