&Questions Answers

Therefore, an Objection to the Consideration of the Question can not be applied to a motion relating to the minutes, whether it’s to include something in the current minutes or to correct something in the minutes proposed for approval . Even if the minutes were already approved, and this person moved to Amend Something Previously Adopted to include an additional paragraph in those minutes, an Objection to the Consideration of the Question could not be applied, since the motion to Amend Something Previously Adopted is an incidental main motion . For more information about the difference between original and incidental main motions, see RONR (12th ed .) 10:2-7 .

QQuESTION:

My club bylaws have a required quorum of 10% of the current membership. This can sometimes be a problem because the membership varies between 200 and 300 members (people join and leave through the year), causing the exact quorum requirement to need recalculation prior to any meeting.

At our last meeting, the president stated that the required quorum was 25 members, and with only 10 members present, declared that there was no quorum (the meeting adjourned shortly thereafter). Before adjournment, a member raised a point of order that the announcement of the required quorum was incorrect, that it should actually be 26 members needed for quorum since the total number of current members was 255. The president ruled the point of order not well-taken because even though the wrong number was stated, there was still not a quorum present. was this correct?

ANSwER:

When a member believes that the rules are being violated, they may raise a Point of Order to call upon the chair for a ruling and to enforce the rules [RONR (12th ed .) §23] . A Point of Order can be applied to any breach of the assembly’s rules, and generally must be raised at the time of the breach (there are exceptions that don’t apply to this particular situation) .