Rescinding without previous notice

[Guest Elcmax]

As a member of an 11 member executive board,  I intend to make a motion to rescind a motion passed at a previous board meeting 5 to 1 (quorum of 6).

No previous notice has been given.  Is the 2/3 rule to rescind based on 11 board members or only of those who are in attendance (6 or more attendees)?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Please post as a new topic.

[Guest Zev]

Rescind:

Two-thirds vote of those present if no notice has been given.

Majority vote if notice is given at the previous meeting or in the call of the present meeting.

A majority of the entire membership notice or not.

Next time please post a question as a new topic.

[jstackpo]

2 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

Rescind:

Two-thirds vote of those present if no notice has been given. 

Nope:  "Two-thirds vote of those present and voting if no notice has been given."  Page 402

[Richard Brown]

Just to be clear and to give a somewhat more complete answer:

A motion to amend or rescind something previously adopted can be adopted by an ordinary majority vote if previous notice is given. A majority vote, unless they bylaws specify otherwise, is the majority of those present and voting, not a majority of those present nor a majority of the entire membership.

If previous notice has not been given, the motion to rescind or amend something previously adopted requires either a two-thirds Vote or the vote of a majority of the entire membership. A two-thirds vote, just as with a majority vote, means two-thirds of those present and voting, not two-thirds of those present. If there are twice as many yes votes as there are no votes, that is a two-thirds vote, regardless of how many people are present. Abstentions do not count and are ignored, just like when calculating a majority vote.

If you are still unsure about, say, the difference between a majority vote, the vote of a majority of the members present, or the vote of a majority of the entire membership, please let us know and we will try to explain it further. The same goes for the different methods and meanings of a two-thirds vote, such as a regular 2/3 vote, the vote of two-thirds of the members present, or a vote of two-thirds of the entire membership. They all mean something different.

BTW, as Mr. Huynh suggested, in the future, please post new questions by starting a new topic, even if it seems to fit in with an already existing topic

Edited October 6, 2018 at 02:55 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Atul Kapur]

And, since this is a board of only 11 members, one further clarification may be useful. Since no notice was given you need either

a) a 2/3 vote of those present and voting,

OR

b) a majority of the entire membership, which in this case would be 6 affirmative votes.

In this case if the vote is 6-5 the motion to rescind would be adopted, even though it is not a 2/3 vote. I have seen organizations get confused in this situation.

[Richard Brown]

Thanks to Atul Kapur for his post above.  We frequently forget that with a small board (or even with a very small membership), it might be easier to get the votes of a majority of the entire membership than a two thirds vote. In the case at hand, a vote of 6 to 5, if there are 11 members on the board, would indeed constitute a majority of the entire membership (of the board) and would be sufficient, even though it is not a two thirds vote which would require a vote of 8 to 3.   A majority of the entire membership (of the board) is actually a smaller number (6).