Chair Executive Authority

[Guest Rookie]

How much leeway does the Chair have in interpreting the required action of a passed motion?  Example, top of Page 121.  In response to a passed motion, the chair requires the treasurer to write a check, and the secretary to write a cover letter.  But the motion said nothing about a cover letter.  This example, I realize, is trivial, but it illustrates my question.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

I think you have found a rather unclear example in the book. As far as RONR is concerned, the chairman has power only in regard to the conduct of meetings. Perhaps we are meant to surmise that this chair has administrative powers defined in the bylaws, or that the motion contains instructions to the treasurer and secretary. I don't see anything in RONR which suggests that the chairman can direct officers to perform tasks outside of the meeting.

[Richard Brown]

3 hours ago, Guest Rookie said:

How much leeway does the Chair have in interpreting the required action of a passed motion?  Example, top of Page 121.  In response to a passed motion, the chair requires the treasurer to write a check, and the secretary to write a cover letter.  But the motion said nothing about a cover letter.  This example, I realize, is trivial, but it illustrates my question.

These are administrative duties and details of the organization and its officers and are outside of the scope of RONR, which is concerned with how to conduct meetings. The language used on that page in RONR is illustrative of how things would normally work and what the chair might (and maybe should) say.  However, what, if anything, the president can order other officers to do is outside the scope of RONR.  Based on the example in the book, it does seem like the treasurer definitely should write the check and the secretary (or the president) should write a cover letter, but that passage should not be construed as giving the chair or the president the authority to order the other officers to do anything.  It is just something that should occur naturally unless the organization has its own procedure for how those details are carried out, such as,  someone else having the authority to write checks.  If the appropriate  officers fail or refuse to carry out the motion as adopted, they can be subject to disciplinary action and even removal from office.

Edited to add:  See, for example, this language on page 456 of RONR: 

"Administrative Duties of the President of a Society. All of the duties of the presiding officer described above relate to the function of presiding over the assembly at its meetings. In addition, in many organized societies, the president has duties as an administrative or executive officer; but these are outside the scope of parliamentary law, and the president has such authority only insofar as the bylaws provide it."

Edited November 19, 2018 at 12:29 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Gary Novosielski]

On 11/18/2018 at 4:08 PM, Guest Rookie said:

How much leeway does the Chair have in interpreting the required action of a passed motion?  Example, top of Page 121.  In response to a passed motion, the chair requires the treasurer to write a check, and the secretary to write a cover letter.  But the motion said nothing about a cover letter.  This example, I realize, is trivial, but it illustrates my question.

The example is intended to illustrate that the chair, upon passage of the motion, should state the effect of the motion.  From this example, we can assume that in this particular society payments are typically made by check, and accompanied by a cover letter.  This is not meant to suggest that the chair could have ordered that the payment should be made by wire transfer, or require some other departure from the norm.

The chair in the example is not ordering, but rather describing the effect of the motion, following ordinary practice.  If a member feels that the description is inaccurate or goes beyond what was agreed to in the motion, a Point of Order to that effect can be raised.

[Transpower]

It is a basic principle of management science that the chief executive follow up on every motion approved by the board to make sure that the agreed action is accomplished.  However, this is implied, not expressly stated in RONR.