Moving something you don't necessarily agree with...?

[RSW]

Okay....this is a bit esoteric, but please bear with me.

There's a nominating committee, charged with investigating the qualifications and fitness of all declared candidates for a position. In the nominating committee's report, they decline to nominate one of the candidates ("Candidate A") for an office.

There is a bylaws provision that a given group ("Group B") "shall not take any action to endorse or officially support any candidate".

If a member of Group B believes the nominating committee made a mistake by not putting forward Candidate A (i.e. Candidate A is qualified to run), and chooses to nominate Candidate A from the floor, does that "endorse or officially support", contrary to the bylaws?

Edited April 4, 2019 at 03:44 PM by Robert Wall
Fixing typo

[George Mervosh]

We can't interpret bylaws here but perhaps this thread about voting for a candidate other than the one you nominated might help you interpret your rule.  https://robertsrules.forumflash.com/topic/33439-does-the-nominator-have-to-vote-for-hisher-nominee/

 

[Dan Honemann]

13 minutes ago, RSW said:

Okay....this is a bit esoteric, but please bear with me.

There's a nominating committee, charged with investigating the qualifications and fitness of all declared candidates for a position. In the nominating committee's report, they decline to nominate one of the candidates ("Candidate A") for an office.

There is a bylaws provision that a given group ("Group B") "shall not take any action to endorse or officially support any candidate".

If a member of Group B believes the nominating committee made a mistake by not putting forward Candidate A (i.e. Candidate A is qualified to run), and chooses to nominate Candidate A from the floor, does that "endorse or officially support", contrary to the bylaws?

The answer to your question depends upon whether your bylaws prohibit individual members of Group B from endorsing candidates or just Group B itself. You haven't quoted enough of your bylaws for anyone to tell.

[RSW]

12 minutes ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

The answer to your question depends upon whether your bylaws prohibit individual members of Group B from endorsing candidates or just Group B itself. You haven't quoted enough of your bylaws for anyone to tell.

The prohibition would seem to be (and has historically been construed as) individual. 

"District executive committee members shall not take any action to endorse or officially support any district officer candidate; however, district executive committee members who are running for district office may campaign on their own behalf."

In this case, there were two declared candidates. One was put forth by the nominating committee, the other wasn't. So barring a nomination from the floor, there is a single candidate for the position.

If somebody in the executive committee believes that both candidates were qualified, and that the choice between the two candidates should be made by the body, are they prohibited from making the nomination because the nomination constitutes "endorsement"?

[RSW]

And an edit to add....elsewhere in the bylaws:

"Nominations may also be made from the floor by any member of the district council."

Members of the executive committee are a subset of the members of the council, so it would seem (to me at least) that the implied endorsement of a nomination would yield to the explicit permission to nominate.

Obviously this is all subject to interpretation by the assembly, but am I on the right track with my reasoning?

[Atul Kapur]

So now that we understand that the prohibition applies to individual district executive committee members, we end up with the question of whether nominating someone for an office meets the definition of endorsing them.

As you note, your own Association must be the one to interpret its own bylaws.

Personally, I come to the opposite conclusion that you do. Nominating someone seems to be an endorsement of their candidacy to me. And if you want to use the general / specific interpretation rule, then the general rule that any member can nominate someone is superseded by the specific rule that certain members cannot.

Fortunately for you, my opinion carries no weight in your association's decision

 

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, RSW said:

The prohibition would seem to be (and has historically been construed as) individual. 

"District executive committee members shall not take any action to endorse or officially support any district officer candidate; however, district executive committee members who are running for district office may campaign on their own behalf."

In this case, there were two declared candidates. One was put forth by the nominating committee, the other wasn't. So barring a nomination from the floor, there is a single candidate for the position.

If somebody in the executive committee believes that both candidates were qualified, and that the choice between the two candidates should be made by the body, are they prohibited from making the nomination because the nomination constitutes "endorsement"?

It seems to me that a nomination of a candidate is indeed an endorsement of that candidate, or at the very least will be perceived as an endorsement.

But I think this is all much ado about nothing. The matter can be resolved by someone who is a member of the council but who is not a member of the executive committee nominating the person in question.

I would also note that so far as RONR is concerned, the role of the nominating committee is generally to nominate the candidates who, in the committee’s opinion, are the best choice for each office, not to nominate all qualified candidates, although it is conceivable that your organization’s rules provide otherwise.