BOD removal of Membership directed, then tabled motion at AGM

[Guest s.oda]

Can the BOD remove an item from the AGM agenda when that agenda item was initiated by Membership vote, and then tabled at the next AGM.  It would seem to me that this is beyond the purview of the BOD, but I cannot find the supporting rule.

[Joshua Katz]

It's not you who must find the supporting rule, but those who claim the board has a certain power.

[Guest Joshua,]

Thanks for the response.  A little more context: There was a committee that proposed a restatement of the organizations bylaws, and a minority group made the meeting so untenable that the vote on the proposed restatement was tabled.  There is now a push for this minority to force the current Board to remove the tabled motion from the agenda hoping to kill the motion.  I understand that it is incumbent upon those making the claim to support their claim, however, if it is possible to proactively show the err, it may help to end the debate before it becomes hostile again.

 

[Rob Elsman]

RONR does not have a rule that would empower an executive board to dispose of an item of business that is in the control of the superior assembly.

[Atul Kapur]

I don't have the book in front of me at the moment but there is a provision that says something along the lines of the board only has those powers which it is granted by the bylaws or by the assembly. So the onus is on those who say the board has the authority to show where that is written.

There is an unfortunate tendency for associations to allow boards too much influence on, or even allow them to write, the agenda for general membership meetings. RONR does not give them that authority.

 

[Guest Zev]

Quote

A society has no executive board, nor can its officers act as a board, except as the bylaws may provide; and when so established, the board has only such power as is delegated to it by the bylaws or by vote of the society's assembly referring individual matters to it.

RONR 11th edition page 482.