Can a Chair Mute Board Members as Default?

[J. J.]

On 5/8/2024 at 9:04 AM, 1Angela said:

Doesn't RONR already provide guidance for a meeting to deal with abusive members though? 

The society can adopt its own rules.

I am also questioning if mute would apply to "abusive members."  It may be an easy way to eliminate background noises, such as the thunderstorm, fan, and chirping bird I have heard since 6:00 AM this morning. 

Edited May 8, 2024 at 11:39 PM by J. J.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 5/8/2024 at 9:19 AM, J. J. said:

The society can adopt its own rules.

I am also questioning if mute would apply to "abusive members."  It may be an easy to eliminate background noises, such as the thunderstorm, fan, and chirping bird I have heard since 6:00 AM this morning. 

Yeah, that was a boomer all right.

[Rob Elsman]

Arguably, world history's most famous instance of the "muting" of a speaker in debate occurred in the early 1960s at the first session of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council at St. Peter's Basilica when the council's ordinary presiding officer pulled the plug on Cardinal Ottaviani, a senior official of the papal curia, who was expounding at too long length on the (riveting?) topic off adding "and Joseph, her most chaste spouse" after the mention of Mary in the Roman Canon of the Mass. Cardinal Ottaviani was reduced to a mere whisperer in the enormous basilica, at which the 6,000 plus bishops broke out into uncharitable applause. The humiliated cardinal left Rome without Pope John's necessary permission and refused to return until he got a formal apology.

Pope John, the consummate diplomat, solved the standoff by 1) installing closed-circuit television broadcast of the proceedings to his apartment (like, "I'm watching you!"), and 2) adding the phrase to the Roman Canon by papal decree (like, "the bishops won the battle but lost the war"). Needless to say, the noticeable rudeness of the bishops' applause has been cited repeatedly as an example of people who ought to know better acting childishly badly.

[Josh Martin]

On 5/8/2024 at 8:04 AM, 1Angela said:

Doesn't RONR already provide guidance for a meeting to deal with abusive members though? 

It does. But depending on the type of assembly, I'm not entirely satisfied those tools will be sufficient.

As others have noted, the muting can also be effective for dealing with background noise. While ultimately background noise is potentially a problem in any assembly, it's one thing to be dealing with the background noise in one location, and it's quite another to be dealing with background noise from numerous locations.

[1Angela]

On 5/10/2024 at 6:49 PM, Josh Martin said:

It does. But depending on the type of assembly, I'm not entirely satisfied those tools will be sufficient.

As others have noted, the muting can also be effective for dealing with background noise. While ultimately background noise is potentially a problem in any assembly, it's one thing to be dealing with the background noise in one location, and it's quite another to be dealing with background noise from numerous locations.

I don't think anybody would have an issue with muting someone who is generating background noise.  Watching this roll out,  the problem arises when the speakers cannot unmute themselves.