voice without vote in an executive committee

[Guest david gaines]

In our state wide body we have and executive committee partially composed of state officers and partially of elected members from the various districts. Some of the state officers are elected at a state convention others are appointed by the Commander. Our constitution states that the apppointed state officers have a voice but no vote in the committee.

Does the voice but no vote clause allow these members to make motions or only participate in the discussion of motions?

 

[Joshua Katz]

So far as RONR is concerned, there are members and non-members. Your rules, though, create something else, neither member nor non-member. If those rules don't specify what to do with this question, they should be amended. In the meantime, though, my personal opinion would be to start with the assumption that they are members, then take away rights they are specified not to have. So they would be allowed to make motions, in that view. But that's just me, and I'm not a member. Your organization will have to decide via a point of order and appeal process.

[Rob Elsman]

When an organization creates multiple classes of membership, it is the organization's responsibility to set out in its governing documents what rights and responsibilities are assigned to each class.

Edited January 12, 2024 at 05:51 PM by Rob Elsman

[Gary Novosielski]

The phrase voice without vote is not defined in RONR, and the only reason it appears in your bylaws is that somebody saw it somewhere in someone else's bylaws (where it was similarly ill-defined) and thought it sounded cool.  I agree with Mr. Katz when he says:

On 1/12/2024 at 12:40 PM, Joshua Katz said:

Your organization will have to decide via a point of order and appeal process.