leaving a meeting in the middle of business

[Guest mistiko]

Hi all, 

Recently, we had a motion on the floor that some people in the room weren't a fan of. At first, there was a move to postpone the main motion, which failed. It went to a roll call vote and while I was counting votes, people were leaving the room. In any case, the move to postpone failed and, when I opened debate back up on the main motion, the first person to speak immediately called the question.

The call to question was moved and second. I had just started saying, "Okay, first I will ask for unanimous consent.." when someone raised their hand. I called on then and they said they had a point of information. This member (who did not want this motion) asked how many voting members were still in the room and how many we needed for quorum. There were 24 voting members in the room and our quorum is 24. After I provided that information, the member promptly left the meeting and we lost quorum. This meant, of course, that we had to stop our business there. 

My question is: is there anything in Robert's Rules about attendance/coming + going while there is an "open" motion on the floor? If we were in person, these types of thing would be less likely as, I think, people would be embarrassed to leave while we're in the middle of transacting business. However, in the virtual meeting room, it seems people have no problem leaving. 

I am wondering if there's anything I can do, as the person who runs the meetings and 'enforces' our bylaws and governance documents, to prevent this from happening (short of politely asking people to stay because that's the only recourse I have right now)? 

Thanks in advance! 

 

[George Mervosh]

2 minutes ago, Guest mistiko said:

My question is: is there anything in Robert's Rules about attendance/coming + going while there is an "open" motion on the floor?

No rule prohibits a member from leaving a meeting any time they wish to.

3 minutes ago, Guest mistiko said:

I am wondering if there's anything I can do, as the person who runs the meetings and 'enforces' our bylaws and governance documents, to prevent this from happening (short of politely asking people to stay because that's the only recourse I have right now)? 

To prevent them from leaving, no, but a motion to recess could have been adopted (by majority vote) and you could have made an attempt during that recess to get someone else to join the meeting and meet the quorum requirement.  

9 minutes ago, Guest mistiko said:

If we were in person, these types of thing would be less likely as, I think, people would be embarrassed to leave while we're in the middle of transacting business.

I don't know about that.   

[Guest mistiko]

10 minutes ago, George Mervosh said:

To prevent them from leaving, no, but a motion to recess could have been adopted (by majority vote) and you could have made an attempt during that recess to get someone else to join the meeting and meet the quorum requirement.  

Aha, okay, so this would be the "move" to counteract someone using quorum to stall business.

It's just frustrating that there's no 'official' way to encourage members to wait until a vote is over before leave. It feels to me that this type of behavior kind of goes against a spirit of democracy, maybe? Ugh. Well, thank you! 

[Guest mistiko]

20 minutes ago, George Mervosh said:

To prevent them from leaving, no, but a motion to recess could have been adopted (by majority vote) and you could have made an attempt during that recess to get someone else to join the meeting and meet the quorum requirement.  

Aha, okay, so this is the move then. 

I'm disappointed that there's no way to 'officially' encourage people to stay in the meeting during the vote. 

Thanks for your help! 

[George Mervosh]

Taking steps to obtain a quorum is always something an assembly can do.  Whether it's at the outset of a meeting where a quorum is not present or if one is lost in the middle of a meeting.

[Joshua Katz]

42 minutes ago, Guest mistiko said:

I am wondering if there's anything I can do, as the person who runs the meetings and 'enforces' our bylaws and governance documents, to prevent this from happening (short of politely asking people to stay because that's the only recourse I have right now)? 

 

Is it a legislative body?