Defining Suspension

[AFS1970]

Our fire department bylaws are silent on what exactly happens when a member is suspended for disciplinary reasons. I have always thought this suspended everything about someone's membership, including being able to attend meetings. Some in our department say that you are not allowed on the property when you are under suspension. With one exception, I have never seen anything actually say either of these restrictions and we have one member that says you have to be able to come to meetings because the meeting is the final arbiter of a suspension. We do have a fairly well-defined suspension process that includes who can suspend a member and how to appeal a suspension. 

So as part of our bylaw revision, one committee member has come up with an interesting hypothetical situation and we are trying to see if there is a way to prevent it.

Removing an officer other than the chief can be done at any meeting with a motion on the floor. Removing the chief requires a special meeting. A special meeting requires a written request to the president by seven members. This committee member is worried that if seven members request this meeting, the chief would be able to see the letter and could suspend those seven members. This would effectively prevent them from presenting their case to the membership. 

Is there anything in RONR that would allow a suspended member to attend, speak and vote at a meeting? 

[Josh Martin]

On 2/21/2022 at 5:35 AM, AFS1970 said:

Our fire department bylaws are silent on what exactly happens when a member is suspended for disciplinary reasons. I have always thought this suspended everything about someone's membership, including being able to attend meetings. Some in our department say that you are not allowed on the property when you are under suspension. With one exception, I have never seen anything actually say either of these restrictions and we have one member that says you have to be able to come to meetings because the meeting is the final arbiter of a suspension. We do have a fairly well-defined suspension process that includes who can suspend a member and how to appeal a suspension. 

So as part of our bylaw revision, one committee member has come up with an interesting hypothetical situation and we are trying to see if there is a way to prevent it.

Removing an officer other than the chief can be done at any meeting with a motion on the floor. Removing the chief requires a special meeting. A special meeting requires a written request to the president by seven members. This committee member is worried that if seven members request this meeting, the chief would be able to see the letter and could suspend those seven members. This would effectively prevent them from presenting their case to the membership. 

Is there anything in RONR that would allow a suspended member to attend, speak and vote at a meeting? 

I don't think RONR will be of much assistance in this regard, since your society is using its own customized disciplinary procedures, not the procedures in RONR.

For what it is worth, under the procedures in RONR, a member can be suspended of some or all of the rights of membership. The suspension should ideally specify which rights are suspended. If not specified, I am generally inclined to think that it suspend all rights of membership.

[Guest Zev]

On 2/21/2022 at 3:35 AM, AFS1970 said:

This committee member is worried that if seven members request this meeting, the chief would be able to see the letter and could suspend those seven members. This would effectively prevent them from presenting their case to the membership. 

How is it possible that the chief could come into the possession of a letter written to the president? Are they one and the same person?

[AFS1970]

They are not the same person, but we are a small enough organization that news travels fast. This is only hypothetical anyway, but a committee member brought it up as something we might want to fix. 

I have seen some questionable suspensions in my brief time with the department, so nothing would surprise me if the contents of such a letter were shared.

While the discipline process is customized, I was really looking to see if the terms of a suspension were defined within RONR, since that is our parliamentary authority. Being that a suspension can be limited to a few areas, but generally within our department is not, I am inclined to agree that it restricts all rights of membership. 

We have a very good, appeals system for suspensions, but that takes some time and I doubt that if this scenario were to play out, we could hear seven separate appeals before a special meeting would occur. 

Edited February 22, 2022 at 06:57 PM by AFS1970