Organization Hierarchy - Executive Committee vs. Committee Chairs

[JohnRez]

Recently we had an incident in our Association that some might call controversial between President and Committee Chair resulting in President shutting the meeting down. 
 

here are some facts in standing Bylaws and Policies. 
1) Committee Chairs serve at the pleasure of president. 
2) President is not a member of the committee or ex-official per bylaws. 
3) Committee Chairs need training and support. 
 

My question, in instances such as below, what authority does the President have? Can the President (Ranking Officer) if present at a meeting (full board or Committee) take control of the meeting when out of order is happening?

At said meeting, Committee Chair questions the President’s integrity and was loud and disrespectful toward the officer while clearly in the wrong when President refused to accept the only provided/presented Vendor Proposal to be placed on the full board Agenda, not knowing that President does not have the authority to sign into any agreement that is above certain dollar amount and Association requires multiple proposal to be presented to the finance committee before even reaching the full BoD.

Some are arguing that President should have not intervened in that meeting to correct the procedure that was being done incorrectly which could have resulted in catastrophic failure for both said committee and Association.

[Gary Novosielski]

The president does not even have the right to attend a committee meeting uninvited, without being a member, either ex-officio or by specific appointment, much less take it over and start issuing commands.  The president has no dictatorial powers, unless your bylaws grant them.  It might be appropriate to consider censure or other discipline to emphasize this fact.

However, the committee member who was being loud and disrespectful, if issuing personal attacks rather than debating the merits of a proposal, should have been called to order by the committee chair or other member of the committee.  But he cannot be disciplined by the committee itself. The committee would need to take that up with the parent body of the committee.

[Josh Martin]

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, JohnRez said:

2) President is not a member of the committee or ex-official per bylaws. 

I think you mean "ex-officio." 

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, JohnRez said:

My question, in instances such as below, what authority does the President have?

My understanding is that the instance below occurred at a meeting of a committee of which the President is neither the chair of the committee nor a member.

If that understanding is correct, the President has no authority in such a meeting.

We are told, however, that "Committee Chairs serve at the pleasure of president." So the President would have the authority to fire the committee chair.

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, JohnRez said:

Can the President (Ranking Officer) if present at a meeting (full board or Committee) take control of the meeting when out of order is happening?

No, at least, not directly.

But if it is correct that committee chairs serve at the pleasure of the President, I suppose technically what the President could do is the following:

• Fire the committee chair.
• Appoint himself as committee chair and preside over the remainder of the meeting.

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, JohnRez said:

Some are arguing that President should have not intervened in that meeting to correct the procedure that was being done incorrectly which could have resulted in catastrophic failure for both said committee and Association.

Those who are arguing this are correct, although there appears to be a workaround, as noted above.

On 4/12/2023 at 1:23 AM, Gary Novosielski said:

The committee would need to take that up with the parent body of the committee.

Well, it looks like they can just take it up with the President. We are told that "Committee Chairs serve at the pleasure of president."

[Joshua Katz]

On 4/12/2023 at 12:01 AM, JohnRez said:

My question, in instances such as below, what authority does the President have? Can the President (Ranking Officer) if present at a meeting (full board or Committee) take control of the meeting when out of order is happening?

 

It must be remembered that parliamentary procedure strives to, as fully as possible without endangering other values, cherish democracy. It is nothing like the military or paramilitary organizations like police and fire departments, that adhere to a rigid hierarchical structure. In parliamentary procedure, the higher you go, you start to lose rights, not to gain them. The president is not, then, the "ranking officer on scene" at a committee meeting. There is no ranking officer, because the notion is foreign to this field. While the chair keeps order, RONR does not adhere to the view that, for any group, someone must be in charge and giving out orders. (This is why so many, for instance, VFDs struggle with it, especially when their meetings are chaired by the fire chief.)