Holding Multiple positions in an Organization

[wfd086]

A question arose during our annual election of officers last night.  We have the following offices that are filled every year - Captain, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant, Secretary/Treasurer, and a 5 member Executive board.  A question arose as to whether one person can hold one of the positions as well as serve on the Executive Board.  There is no prohibition written in our By-Laws on it and I could not find anything either way in Robert's Rules.

Thanks

Edited January 18, 2024 at 05:44 PM by wfd086

[Atul Kapur]

Nothing in RONR prohibits this, unless it is incompatible to hold both positions. An example of such incompatibility would be to hold both offices of president and vice president, because the vp's role is to replace the president if that office is vacant.

[Josh Martin]

On 1/18/2024 at 11:43 AM, wfd086 said:

A question arose during our annual election of officers last night.  We have the following offices that are filled every year - Captain, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant, Secretary/Treasurer, and a 5 member Executive board.  A question arose as to whether one person can hold one of the positions as well as serve on the Executive Board.  There is no prohibition written in our By-Laws on it and I could not find anything either way in Robert's Rules.

First, as a general matter, RONR has no prohibition on a person serving in multiple, different offices.

But my question is this - do the positions of Captain, 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Lieutenant, Secretary/Treasurer already serve as ex officio members of the Executive Board? If so, it's not entirely clear to me what purpose would be served by holding both positions. If not, I don't see a problem.

[Gary Novosielski]

RONR has no prohibition against a person holding two offices, although common sense would dictate that certain combinations are absurd, such as being both the president and vice president.

RONR does say that a person cannot be elected to two positions on a single ballot.  In other words, if all those positions are voted on individually, i.e., their is a vote for Captain, and once the results are announced, there is a vote for 1LT, and after that result is known, for 2LT, and so on, a person can be elected to more than one position (although I question if any of the combinations from that list would make sense, especially since Secretary and Treasurer are already combined.}  With separate ballots, the voters are able to decide whether a person, or one person in particular, should be elected to two offices.

But if the voters cast one ballot with separate sections for each office, then although a candidate's name could be listed (or written in) for more than one office, if he received a majority for more than one, he would have to choose which one of them he would accept election to.  Then, since the election for the other office(s) would be incomplete, an additional round of balloting to fill it would be required.  And yes, he would be eligible to run on the second ballot. 

Note well that for any office he did not choose, the second-place candidate would not be elected automatically.  Since they did not have a majority on the first ballot a second ballot would be required.

Edited January 18, 2024 at 06:29 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Joshua Katz]

In most such organizations, there is a perception, valid or not, that this produces a conflict, or at least a tension. A line officer voting on funding for equipment he requests sometimes feels wrong. But the remedy for that is to put a prohibition, if one is desired, in the bylaws. 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/18/2024 at 3:20 PM, Joshua Katz said:

In most such organizations, there is a perception, valid or not, that this produces a conflict, or at least a tension. A line officer voting on funding for equipment he requests sometimes feels wrong. But the remedy for that is to put a prohibition, if one is desired, in the bylaws. 

And bylaws provision or not, if the perception is widespread in the organization, the membership simply won't vote somebody into such a situation.  Without a bylaws provision they can still exercise judgment on a case-by-case basis.