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Impasse between committee and Board


Rebecca S

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We have a motion that the Board voted unanimously on for the election committee to hire a parliamentarian to determine whether a member was eligible to run since there was a disagreement on the reading of the Bylaws on eligibility.  The agreement by the Board was for both sides to send their documentation to the committee and the committee would handle sending it to the parliamentarian for an opinion.  The problem came when one side presented their documentation and some on the Board considered it "unfair."  It was in fact a different parliamentarian's opinion supporting that person's side on the eligibility debate.  At this time the committee and now a faction of the Board are refusing to follow through with the original motion since this documentation does not include what they expected it to. What can you do if you do not have a majority vote to require completion of the motion after the original motion passed?  Is there anything that can be done?  The problem is that the time for nominations is quickly coming to a close and now multiple members are being denied eligibility based on the committee's interpretation of the Bylaws.  The Board is basically split 6 to 5.

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2 hours ago, Rebecca S said:

We have a motion that the Board voted unanimously on for the election committee to hire a parliamentarian to determine whether a member was eligible to run since there was a disagreement on the reading of the Bylaws on eligibility.  The agreement by the Board was for both sides to send their documentation to the committee and the committee would handle sending it to the parliamentarian for an opinion.  The problem came when one side presented their documentation and some on the Board considered it "unfair."  It was in fact a different parliamentarian's opinion supporting that person's side on the eligibility debate.  At this time the committee and now a faction of the Board are refusing to follow through with the original motion since this documentation does not include what they expected it to. What can you do if you do not have a majority vote to require completion of the motion after the original motion passed?  Is there anything that can be done?  The problem is that the time for nominations is quickly coming to a close and now multiple members are being denied eligibility based on the committee's interpretation of the Bylaws.  The Board is basically split 6 to 5.

If the board now chooses not to hire a parliamentarian to provide advice on this matter, then I suppose no parliamentarian will be hired. The membership could provide instructions to the board, but presumably the membership will not meet soon enough to do this.

I would note that the ultimate authority to interpret the bylaws rests with the society itself. In the interim, the board (and the election committee, if your rules give that committee a role in this) will need to interpret the rules as best as it can.

1 hour ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

The bylaws could be amended to remove any ambiguity.

Yes, but it is doubtful this can be done in time to help with the current situation.

Edited by Josh Martin
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The board passed a motion directing the procedure to be followed. They now do not want to follow that procedure. They should make a motion to Rescind the original motion, rather than just ignore it. Otherwise, they should follow through with the motion that was passed. Any other course of action will likely lead to complaints.

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54 minutes ago, Atul Kapur said:

The board passed a motion directing the procedure to be followed. They now do not want to follow that procedure. They should make a motion to Rescind the original motion, rather than just ignore it. Otherwise, they should follow through with the motion that was passed. Any other course of action will likely lead to complaints.

I agree that, as a procedural matter, the correct course of action for the board to take if it no longer wishes to hire a parliamentarian for advice on the bylaws is to rescind the original motion. The motion to Rescind requires a 2/3 vote, a vote of a majority of the entire membership (of the board), or a majority vote with previous notice.

I rather doubt, however, that formally rescinding the motion will stop the complaints. :)

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