Quorums and voting - "Full Commission"

[Guest Todd B]

The rules say: "All undertakings of, or actions taken by, the Commission shall require a vote from a majority of the full commission membership." (emphasis added)

If the commission is composed of 16 members, and nine are present at the meeting, does a 5-4 vote prevail (majority of those in attendance), or do all nine need to agree (majority of all members appointed to the commission)?

[Guest I cut short the full rule]

and the part I cut is probably relevant.  It fully reads: "(5) All undertakings of, or actions taken by, the Commission shall require a vote from a majority of the full commission membership. No committee or other subgroup of delegates and alternates formed by the Commission, whether selected or appointed, may be granted the power or authority to act in the place of or on behalf of the full body of the duly selected or appointed Commission membership."

[Atul Kapur]

The wording leaves room for interpretation but I read it to say that undertakings or actions require 9 affirmative votes (majority of the current membership of 16).

[Joshua Katz]

I read it as saying it takes a majority, and the quorum is a majority, but it doesn't matter. The organization will have to interpret it. (How many votes does it take to sustain the chair;s ruling on appeal?)

[Gary Novosielski]

On 5/25/2023 at 7:16 PM, Guest I cut short the full rule said:

and the part I cut is probably relevant.  It fully reads: "(5) All undertakings of, or actions taken by, the Commission shall require a vote from a majority of the full commission membership. No committee or other subgroup of delegates and alternates formed by the Commission, whether selected or appointed, may be granted the power or authority to act in the place of or on behalf of the full body of the duly selected or appointed Commission membership."

I agree with @Atul Kapur that this sounds like a "majority of the entire membership", so with 16 living members, that's nine required to adopt.  The other language probably is not relevant to the vote counts.  It's the same as the usual case for committees in RONR.  But it prevents the commission from granting full power to a committee.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 5/25/2023 at 9:42 PM, Joshua Katz said:

I read it as saying it takes a majority, and the quorum is a majority, but it doesn't matter. The organization will have to interpret it. (How many votes does it take to sustain the chair;s ruling on appeal?)

I'm not sure this MEM requirement would apply to incidental motions; I would not consider those to be "undertakings" or "actions" of the Commission.  That language sounds like original main motions.  But I wouldn't put money on it without seeing more than just paragraph 5).