Permission to speak

[Tomm]

If a member of the organization  (who is not a Board member)  is attending a meeting of the Board and wishes to speak, does the Chair alone have the authority to grant the permission or does it require a vote by the rest of the Board members?

[J. J.]

11 minutes ago, Tomm said:

If a member of the organization  (who is not a Board member)  is attending a meeting of the Board and wishes to speak, does the Chair alone have the authority to grant the permission or does it require a vote by the rest of the Board members?

It technically would require the rules to be suspended for the non board member to enter into debate (p. 263, fn.).  That is often done by unanimous consent with the chair assuming the motion suspend the rules.  If objected to, a motion to suspend the rules and permit the nonmember to speak in debate, would need to be adopted.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 12/31/2019 at 10:18 PM, Tomm said:

If a member of the organization  (who is not a Board member)  is attending a meeting of the Board and wishes to speak, does the Chair alone have the authority to grant the permission or does it require a vote by the rest of the Board members?

If this is a matter of hearing comments from a non-board-member while no motion is being debated, then a majority vote of the board would be sufficient.  As Mr. J. has pointed out, non-members speaking in debate would require suspension of the rule against it, which would require a 2/3 vote. 

If the permission is non-controversial, a unanimous consent request would work in either case.