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Presiding Officer/President, Elections


Guest GNWJR

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Background:

1) The Bylaws of a Club establish that the President shall conduct all meetings of the organization; 2) The Bylaws also states that they Club shall meet each Thursday; 3)The Bylaws further states that the election of Officers shall be held on the first meeting night in September (tomorrow, September 5, 2019), and 4) The President has indicated that he will hold the elections on next Thursday, September 12, 2019.

Question: 

1) Under the above circumstances, if the President refuses to call the meeting to order, and/or refuses to preside over elections on the date mandated by the Bylaws, can the President be removed as the Presiding Officer of the meeting and replaced by the Vice President? Alternatively, can the Vice President call the meeting to order and preside over the meeting and elections?

2) If the answer to Question 1 is, Yes, what Motion(s) are required to take action to remove the presiding officer and/or request that the Vice President act as presiding officer of the meeting and elections?

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"REMOVAL OF PRESIDING OFFICER FROM CHAIR FOR ALL OR PART OF A SESSION. If the chair fails to act in accordance with the assembly’s decision on an appeal (or on a point of order submitted to a vote of the assembly) or otherwise culpably fails to perform the duties of the chair properly in a meeting, the assembly may employ measures temporarily to replace the chair with another presiding officer expected to act in accordance with the will of the assembly. ... a motion can be made to Suspend the Rules so as to take away from him [the President] the authority to preside during all or part of a given session.**
** This is true even if the bylaws contain a provision to the effect that the
president shall preside at all meetings, since such a provision is clearly in the
nature of a rule of order, which may be suspended even if in the bylaws. See
page 17, ll. 22-25."
RONR 11th ed., p. 651-2

Suspend the Rules requires a 2/3 vote to be adopted.

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28 minutes ago, Guest GNWJR said:

Background:

1) The Bylaws of a Club establish that the President shall conduct all meetings of the organization; 2) The Bylaws also states that they Club shall meet each Thursday; 3)The Bylaws further states that the election of Officers shall be held on the first meeting night in September (tomorrow, September 5, 2019), and 4) The President has indicated that he will hold the elections on next Thursday, September 12, 2019.

Question: 

1) Under the above circumstances, if the President refuses to call the meeting to order, and/or refuses to preside over elections on the date mandated by the Bylaws, can the President be removed as the Presiding Officer of the meeting and replaced by the Vice President? Alternatively, can the Vice President call the meeting to order and preside over the meeting and elections?

2) If the answer to Question 1 is, Yes, what Motion(s) are required to take action to remove the presiding officer and/or request that the Vice President act as presiding officer of the meeting and elections?

If the chair fails to call the meeting to order, and the meeting is otherwise proper, the vice president can call it to order.  If the president refuses to preside, the vice president will chair the meeting.  If the president refuses to conduct  parts of the meeting, the rules may be suspended to permit the vice president (or someone else) to preside.  That would require a 2/3 vote.

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You could also inform the president that at the instant the election becomes pending he could suggest that the election be postponed for one week for such-and-such reasons, and if those reasons seemed reasonable to the majority then the election could take place next week and the situation would be defused.

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18 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

You could also inform the president that at the instant the election becomes pending he could suggest that the election be postponed for one week for such-and-such reasons, and if those reasons seemed reasonable to the majority then the election could take place next week and the situation would be defused.

I would suggest, however, that the President should not do so unless he first relinquishes the chair to the Vice President, since the presiding officer is supposed to maintain the appearance of impartiality.

Edited by Josh Martin
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