No special orders allowed

[Tomm]

Assuming that the Board already has an order of business because it uses RONR as its parliamentary procedure, and I assume the term "an agenda can be adopted" refers to the fact that agenda hasn't really been adopted until voted on and approved.

"At a session that already has an order of business, an agenda can be adopted by a majority vote only if it does not create any special orders and does not conflict with the existing order of business; otherwise, a two-thirds vote is required." RONR (12th ed.) 41:61

Question: What is meant by "not create any special orders and does not conflict with the existing order of business" What type of orders is this referring too?

[Joshua Katz]

Take a look at 41:41 for the definition of special order. Orders of the day are subjects, questions, or items of business that are set in advance to be taken up at a session, or at a specific time. These are divided into special and general orders, the difference being whether setting the time to take up the item also suspends any rules that would interfere with doing so. Which explains the why of the rule you cite: to adopt a special order is, in effect, to authorize suspending the rules for the purpose of taking it up, and thus requires a 2/3 vote.

 

[Josh Martin]

12 hours ago, Tomm said:

Assuming that the Board already has an order of business because it uses RONR as its parliamentary procedure...

If this is the same organization you have been asking about lately, I am not certain that this is a fair assumption, given that the organization has a rule in its bylaws which requires the board to use an agenda at all of its regular meetings.

[Guest Zev]

On 6/1/2021 at 4:52 PM, Joshua Katz said:

These are divided into special and general orders, the difference being whether setting the time to take up the item also suspends any rules that would interfere with doing so.

I suspect that another possible explanation for not allowing special orders may have something to do with the rules concerning special orders in sections 41:49. Once the reader then gets to section 41:55 with the examples and attempts to digest this it may prove to be a little bit too much. So the assembly simplifies matters by just dealing with general orders in the sequence they were made. But this is only a guess.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 6/1/2021 at 6:55 PM, Tomm said:

"At a session that already has an order of business, an agenda can be adopted by a majority vote only if it does not create any special orders and does not conflict with the existing order of business; otherwise, a two-thirds vote is required." RONR (12th ed.) 41:61

The title of this thread (No Special Orders Allowed) seems to be misleading.  In the cited text, there is no rule against special orders, it simply requires a different vote threshold if they are included.