Motion to commit not voted on.

[Guest Steve Kamrad]

In a meeting I committed a motion, which was seconded, our president then said "we don't need to vote" I clarified I was motioning to commit. Which I knew needed a second and a vote. This was "drown out" with comments and questions and the president (chair) responded with "we'll" look into it. Which I explained it needs to be voted on, and then the committee would need to bring a plan/ motion to the floor for the next meeting.

 

The vote still did not happen after this.

What can I do or should I expect?

[Joshua Katz]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:25 PM, Guest Steve Kamrad said:

What can I do or should I expect?

Personally, I'd expect nothing. You moved to commit and the motion was never dealt with.

Anyway, what happened next? The motion was pending, you moved to commit, then what?

[Guest Steve]

Nothing else happened. The meeting was called to an end immediately after. My hang up is that the president said "were not voting on this because there is no motion." So then it was discussed between the chair and other members and it was discussed into obscurity and the president said "it will be discussed with the Eboard/committee and brought up at the next meeting. 

[Joshua Katz]

Well, the president apparently does not have a good grasp of parliamentary procedure, or simply prefers a more authoritative role than RONR gives him, if you made a motion and he responded "there's no motion." But that seems doubly wrong because there was also a pending motion.

I have no idea what to expect next. Who knows what they'll decide? You might want to be prepared with a point of order if what they decide is something they have no authority to decide.

[Dan Honemann]

On 8/8/2023 at 4:25 PM, Guest Steve Kamrad said:

In a meeting I committed a motion, ....

What, exactly, do you mean by this?

[Gary Novosielski]

On 8/8/2023 at 4:25 PM, Guest Steve Kamrad said:

In a meeting I committed a motion, which was seconded, our president then said "we don't need to vote" I clarified I was motioning to commit. Which I knew needed a second and a vote. This was "drown out" with comments and questions and the president (chair) responded with "we'll" look into it. Which I explained it needs to be voted on, and then the committee would need to bring a plan/ motion to the floor for the next meeting.

 

The vote still did not happen after this.

What can I do or should I expect?

Did you raise a Point of Order?  

[puzzling]

Get some copies of RONR 12th edition(at least 2) and give one to the chair. Probably he doesn't even know that there is a recent  version of RONR andvghrn point him to the relevant page.

[Josh Martin]

On 8/8/2023 at 3:25 PM, Guest Steve Kamrad said:

In a meeting I committed a motion, which was seconded, our president then said "we don't need to vote" I clarified I was motioning to commit. Which I knew needed a second and a vote.

I concur that, based on the facts presented, the President's comment that a vote was not required on the motion to Commit was mistaken.

On 8/8/2023 at 3:25 PM, Guest Steve Kamrad said:

This was "drown out" with comments and questions and the president (chair) responded with "we'll" look into it. Which I explained it needs to be voted on, and then the committee would need to bring a plan/ motion to the floor for the next meeting.

The vote still did not happen after this.

What can I do or should I expect?

It's still not entirely clear to me what exactly happened following the motion to Commit, and it's also not clear to me what this motion to Commit was concerning.

Can you provide some additional facts about what exactly happened? Was this motion to Commit in regards to a general topic or subject, or was it in regards to a pending motion? Additionally, what exactly happened following the "drowning out" and the chair's announcement that "we" will look into this issue?

On 8/8/2023 at 3:53 PM, Guest Steve said:

Nothing else happened. The meeting was called to an end immediately after. My hang up is that the president said "were not voting on this because there is no motion." So then it was discussed between the chair and other members and it was discussed into obscurity and the president said "it will be discussed with the Eboard/committee and brought up at the next meeting. 

Well, I suppose what you should expect is that "it will be discussed with the Eboard/committee and brought up at the next meeting," since that is what you were told would occur. I'm not entirely certain whether this is what should happen, but it appears that this is what will happen. As for next steps, I suppose I would be prepared to, at the next meeting, make a motion for whatever it is you want to happen next, and be prepared to raise a Point of Order and/or Appeal this time if the President continues to simply ignore the motion.

What exactly were you moving to "commit?"

On 8/8/2023 at 3:58 PM, Joshua Katz said:

But that seems doubly wrong because there was also a pending motion.

It's not actually clear to me this was the case. The OP has not clarified what the parliamentary situation was prior to making his motion to Commit. While the motion to Commit is most commonly known in its form as a subsidiary motion, it may also be used as an incidental main motion, which I think may have been the case here (and may be what led to the chair's confusion, who may have been unfamiliar with that usage).

Edited August 9, 2023 at 01:12 PM by Josh Martin