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Delegate instructions


Guest Karen

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The membership needs to give instructions to the Delegate of how to vote on proposed amendments.  We can go through each amendment and pole or allow the membership to vote by ballot on their desire of which proposed amendments they want the Delegate to vote up or down.   What stated motion is needed to carry this out? 

 

 

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The first point is that you don't need to do this. You can leave your delegate free to vote as they wish at the time. This also resolves the situation if the proposed amendment is itself amended at the convention.

You can have a separate motion for each Amendment or you could combine them into one motion that you can debate seriatim. The wording could be something like:

"That the delegate be instructed to vote as follows on the proposed amendments at the convention:

A)Amendment 1: in Favour

B ) Amendment 2: Opposed

 ..."

Edited by Atul Kapur
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The process is not clear.  Do we first make a motion to allow members to vote their desire for each amendment, whether that is done separately or combined?  What is the wording of that motion?  After that is done, it sounds like a motion is in order to have the Delegate vote as the membership has voted upon.  Is this correct?

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3 minutes ago, Guest Karen said:

The process is not clear.  Do we first make a motion to allow members to vote their desire for each amendment, whether that is done separately or combined?  What is the wording of that motion?  After that is done, it sounds like a motion is in order to have the Delegate vote as the membership has voted upon.  Is this correct?

You don't need a motion and vote at all to allow delegates "to vote their desire for each amendment." That's the default situation, so you only need a motion and vote if you want to instruct the delegates to vote a specific way. (This assumes that you don't have a rule somewhere in your governing documents that requires the delegates to vote as instructed.) 

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15 minutes ago, Guest Karen said:

The process is not clear.  Do we first make a motion to allow members to vote their desire for each amendment, whether that is done separately or combined?  What is the wording of that motion?  After that is done, it sounds like a motion is in order to have the Delegate vote as the membership has voted upon.  Is this correct?

Well, this process isn't quite what Mr. Kapur was suggesting, but I suppose this would work too. I think what he's suggesting is that you actually all talk about each amendment and how (or if) you want to instruct the delegate to vote on each of them. This could be done by making a separate motion regarding each amendment and the proposed instruction. Alternately, it could be done by by making a motion including the instructions on each of the amendments. In either event, the motion(s) are subject to debate and amendment. The advantages of this process is that the assembly can actually talk things out and persuade their fellow members, and it also means you have the flexibility of choosing not to instruct the delegate on certain matters. Leaving the delegate with free will is usually the advisable course of action, since the delegate can then adapt to changing circumstances. Instead, the assembly might want to just instruct the delegate on the most important amendments.

If you want to do it your way, however, I suppose a motion could be made along these lines:

"I move that the assembly vote by ballot expressing their preference on each of the amendments, listed below, and that the delegate be instructed to vote "yes" or "no" on each amendment according to the preference of the membership as expressed by majority vote. In the event that the vote on a particular amendment is a tie, the delegate shall be free to vote in his own best judgment on that amendment.

(List of Amendments)"

6 minutes ago, Weldon Merritt said:

You don't need a motion and vote at all to allow delegates "to vote their desire for each amendment." That's the default situation, so you only need a motion and vote if you want to instruct the delegates to vote a specific way. (This assumes that you don't have a rule somewhere in your governing documents that requires the delegates to vote as instructed.) 

I think what the OP is saying is that the members would vote their desire on each amendment, and the delegate would then be instructed to vote accordingly.

Edited by Josh Martin
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