If the constitution says a specific person is a member of the Executive Committee, can the parent organization vote to revoke that member's voting rights without changing the constitution?

[Guest John]

If the constitution says a specific person is a member of the Executive Committee, can the parent organization vote to revoke that member's voting rights on the Executive Committee without changing the constitution? We also don't want to remove that person from the organization, just remove their voting rights on the Executive Committee.

Someone mentioned to me that this can be done because special rules for a committee can be adopted by a majority vote of the parent organization (50:26 in RONR 12th), and those special rules can make this person not have a vote on the Executive Committee, but that person still counts toward a quorum on the executive committee.

[Gary Novosielski]

The Executive Committee, in spite of the name, is not a committee; it is a board within a board, and committee rules to do not apply to it.

If you're using normal nomenclature, the Executive Committee is a subset of the Executive Board, so to remove someone from the EC you would have to remove them from the Board.  (Removing only voting rights does not make a lot of sense to me.)  If someone has no voting rights, they do not count toward a quorum unless you have unusual bylaws.

Removal from office is one of several types of discipline and you'll have to check your bylaws to see how officers can be removed and for what cause, if any.  If your bylaws do not have such provisions, and RONR is your parliamentary authority, Chapter XX. of RONR contains the rules on applying discipline, which include an investigating committee and a trial.

There is one more way to remove someone but it depends on the precise language used to describe their term of office, especially any provision that mentions the election of their successor.  If you have any such language describing this person's term, please quote it exactly, word for word, here.

[Bruce Lages]

A member's voting rights can be suspended as a result of disciplinary action following the procedures for such action contained in your bylaws, or, if your bylaws do not include any disciplinary procedures, following the rules in RONR ( Chapter XX in RONR, 12th ed.). Under the rules in RONR, the member's voting rights could be suspended without removing them from the Executive Committee. If you have your own disciplinary procedures they may differ in this regard.

I don't believe that a special rule for a committee adopted by majority vote can be sufficient to suspend a member's voting rights,especially from the Executive Committee, since under the rules in RONR an executive committee is more in the nature of a board than a committee, functioning as a 'board within a board' (RONR 49:13). Its composition and function is usually defined in the bylaws rather than by the procedures used for creating and appointing committees. Special rules for committees therefore do not apply to the executive committee.

[Richard Brown]

 The short answer is that you can do it without amending the bylaws, but only through disciplinary proceedings.

[Guest John]

Does anyone have a citation in RONR where it says the organization isn't allowed to take away another person's right to vote such as by creating special rules or creating standing rules or passing a motion?

Thanks for these responses!

[Richard Brown]

Section 1:4 of RONR,12th ed.

Edited to add:  Here is the full text of section 1:4:

“A member of an assembly, in the parliamentary sense, as mentioned above, is a person entitled to full participation in its proceedings, that is, as explained in 3 and 4, the right to attend meetings, to make motions, to speak in debate, and to vote. No member can be individually deprived of these basic rights of membership—or of any basic rights concomitant to them, such as the right to make nominations or to give previous notice of a motion—except through disciplinary proceedings. Some organized societies define additional classes of “membership” that do not entail all of these rights. Whenever the term member is used in this book, it refers to full participating membership in the assembly unless otherwise specified. Such members are also described as “voting members” when it is necessary to make a distinction.”

 

Edited July 6, 2024 at 02:17 PM by Richard Brown
Added text of 1:4