Meeting procedure

[Frankiegirl]

At our meeting the president was ridiculed for letting the secretary take over most of the meeting. The president was ill and thought it best not to try and go over subjects that the secretary had researched and prepared. Is there a rule that states the president has to announce that to the crowd?

[Gary Novosielski]

If the president is unable to perform the required duties, the vice president should be called on to preside.  Or if there is no vice president present, any member can be elected to preside as president pro-tem for that meeting.

It is a bad idea to call on the secretary, because the secretary ordinarily is occupied with recording the minutes, and if called on to do twice the work will likely not perform either task well.

[Josh Martin]

On 9/19/2023 at 8:53 PM, Frankiegirl said:

At our meeting the president was ridiculed for letting the secretary take over most of the meeting. The president was ill and thought it best not to try and go over subjects that the secretary had researched and prepared. Is there a rule that states the president has to announce that to the crowd?

If the President is appointing another person as Chairman Pro Tempore, yes, that should be announced. Such an appointment is subject to the assembly's approval. Typically, this is granted by unanimous consent, but if there is an objection, a majority vote would be required. If the assembly does not approve the appointment, a different person would need to be selected, or the President could let the assembly elect a chair.

I concur with Mr. Novosielski, however, that it's not clear why the Secretary took over presiding. It would have been preferable for the Vice President to do so. In the event it was viewed as preferable for the Secretary to preside, the President and Vice President both agreed with this arrangement, and the assembly did not object (or approved by a majority vote), this could be done, but in such an event a different person should be appointed as Secretary Pro Tempore. It's difficult to preside and take minutes at the same time.

I'm also somewhat unclear on what was meant by "try and go over subjects that the secretary had researched and prepared." It's not clear to me if what was actually desired here was for the Secretary to preside over the meeting or for the Secretary to present to the meeting on certain matters. That should not be the same person. The latter seems unobjectionable. Generally, it is desirable to have persons who are "researched and prepared" be the persons presenting.

Edited September 20, 2023 at 04:40 PM by Josh Martin