Comments from Board Members

[Guest S H Shuford]

Following the new business portion of the agenda, our board has the practice of allowing board members to make comments. These are generally short announcements, commendations, etc. At our last meeting,a member had made a motion that did not receive a second, and therefore no debate followed. The maker of the motion during the comments section proceeded to offer his argument in favor of the dead motion.Other members then, when their turn to speak came, entered into the debate. How should this have been properly handled by the chair?

[George Mervosh]

How did he handle it?

[Guest s shuford]

He interrupted the speaker by making comments about what was said.

[George Mervosh]

This passage in RONR sounds applicable:

"Good of the Order, General Good and Welfare, or Open Forum. This heading, included by some types of societies in their order of business, refers to the general welfare of the organization, and may vary in character. Under this heading (in contrast to the general parliamentary rule that allows discussion only with reference to a pending motion), members who obtain the floor commonly are permitted to offer informal observations regarding the work of the organization, the public reputation of the society or its membership, or the like. Certain types of announcements may tend to fall here. Although the Good of the Order often involves no business or motions, the practice of some organizations would place motions or resolutions relating to formal disciplinary procedures for offenses outside a meeting (61) at this point. In some organizations, the program (see below) is looked upon as a part of the Good of the Order." RONR, pp. 350-351

He shouldn't interrupt a speaker but if no one raised a point of order about the nature of these comments violating some rule, letting it continue was fine.

[Guest s shuford]

The speaker feels the chair did not have the right to interrupt him.

[George Mervosh]

The speaker feels the chair did not have the right to interrupt him.

He's right, the chair can't engage the member in debate. He could have attempted to rule any such comments out of order but apparently he didn't.

But this interruption business wasn't what you asked about initially.

[hmtcastle]

The maker of the motion during the comments section proceeded to offer his argument in favor of the dead motion.Other members then, when their turn to speak came, entered into the debate.

If this is a meeting of a "small" board (one where not more than about a dozen members are present), the rules are relaxed and, among other things, "informal discussion of subject is permitted while no motion is pending" (p. 470).

[Josh Martin]

How should this have been properly handled by the chair?

Since this is a part of the meeting reserved for members to make comments, I don't think there was anything to handle. I'd also note that informal discussion is permitted in small boards (about a dozen members or fewer) and seconds are not required for motions.