Can a President call for a vote where he previously made a promise to the Board for a pending outcome

[Guest srqjim]

First and foremost allow me to thank you for the information you all offer to us who are learning and most probably stumbling with proper Parliamentary meeting procedures and do's and don'ts.  

To be short and concise, without leaving out pertinent information for you to comment on, my situation is as follows. I have recently resigned from a Board and three days later rescinded my resignation without any action by the Board between the two letters. Now, it is my understanding that the President will call for my resignation, at the next scheduled meeting, to be accepted regardless of protocol .  The problem here is that he has made comment, in my view actually intimated the Board, my telling them that if I am voted back on the Board, he will resign.  In my eyes holding the Board hostage to sway a vote by making a promise of value before the vote is taken. Are his comments and/or threats, or offer of vote consideration addressed at all in Roberts Rule of Order ..

Thank you in advance for your valued opinion.

[Josh Martin]

3 minutes ago, Guest srqjim said:

To be short and concise, without leaving out pertinent information for you to comment on, my situation is as follows. I have recently resigned from a Board and three days later rescinded my resignation without any action by the Board between the two letters. Now, it is my understanding that the President will call for my resignation, at the next scheduled meeting, to be accepted regardless of protocol .  The problem here is that he has made comment, in my view actually intimated the Board, my telling them that if I am voted back on the Board, he will resign.  In my eyes holding the Board hostage to sway a vote by making a promise of value before the vote is taken. Are his comments and/or threats, or offer of vote consideration addressed at all in Roberts Rule of Order ..

I would first note that, since your resignation was withdrawn prior to any action by the board, there is presently no resignation for the board to act on. A resignation may only be offered voluntarily. So the President is free to call for your resignation, but you are free to refuse to offer your resignation. Only if you offer a new resignation would the board even have the opportunity to act on your resignation. There is no need for the board to vote you back on to the board, because you never left. What the President does in regards to offering his own resignation is his own business.

In short, no, RONR does not address these issues. There are rules for handling resignations. The rest is political issues the board will have to resolve for itself.

[Gary Novosielski]

I concur fully with Mr. Martin.  The situation you laid out is fully addressed in RONR as he describerd.

And if the president does verbally resign at that time, you (or perhaps someone else) can immediately move to accept, since once accepted, it cannot be withdrawn.  And at a meeting, a verbal resignation is valid, if the rules in RONR apply.

But there is an opportunity for him to save face, since, as Mr. Martin pointed out, there is no need to vote you back on, when you never left.

 

Edited April 20, 2020 at 09:12 PM by Gary Novosielski