Making a motion at a special meeting

[SBFFA]

The President of our association recently held a special meeting. It was a very contentious meeting to say the least. During the President's presentation he was interrupted several times with "I have a question" from several members. While answering the question, a couple other members started talking and it turned into a conversation. One of the members made a motion, who was not recognized and it was quickly seconded. The president said he was not going to accept the motion as this was a special meeting about one subject and even though the motion could be considered part of what the meeting was about, it wasn't really. Is this allowed? Can the president ignore a motion? Does that mean any business that happens at the meeting is not valid?  

[Atul Kapur]

Lots of problems, here, including more than one person speaking at once.

On 10/23/2023 at 11:50 AM, SBFFA said:

Can the president ignore a motion?

No, but that's not what happened according to your description. The president did not ignore the motion but ruled the motion was not in order ("The president said he was not going to accept the motion"). This sounds correct, based on your description and the fact that this was a special meeting and 9:15 says "The only business that can be transacted at a special meeting is that which has been specified in the call of the meeting."

The president's ruling could have been appealed at the time. It is too late to appeal it now.

On 10/23/2023 at 11:50 AM, SBFFA said:

Does that mean any business that happens at the meeting is not valid?  

Well, the chair was correct, so that wouldn't be a reason to doubt the validity of any business that was actually transacted.

If the motion that the president ruled out of order was, nevertheless, considered and adopted, that motion is still not valid; again quoting from 9:15 "If, at a special meeting, action is taken relating to business not mentioned in the call, that action, to become valid, must be ratified (see 10:54–57) by the organization at a regular meeting (or at another special meeting properly called for that purpose)."