[Ofsrdc] More Arcane Federation Procedural Stuff

[Tim Roberts]

People whom I respect have taken issue with some of my conclusions from
this weekend about our procedural actions.  This is an important enough
issue that we need to explore all of this, as arcane as it might seem. 
The exact situation we face is not explicitly covered in our by-laws and
P&Ps, so there is going to be a certain amount of interpretation going on.

There is one thing that is unquestionably clear: Jim Rogers will be the
chairman of the meeting when we convene on January 28.  Robert's Rules
give the chairman ultimate authority in the body.  It is the chair's
responsibility to listen to all of the input, judge the issues, come to
conclusions, and state his decisions.  Those decisions then become the
actions of the body, whether or not they are in accordance with the
procedures.  Any member with voting rights (the 8 elected officers and
13 delegates) has the right to object to any action by the chair, and
may move to overturn it.  If that motion passes with a 2/3 majority, the
chair is overruled.  Such actions should be reserved only for very
serious issues, since they tend to undermine the body's confidence in
its administration, but the option is available.

Our procedures do not provide for automatic promotion of the 1st VP to
President.  This action *is* specified in Robert's Rules, but not in our
procedures.  Our procedures do say that the 1st VP "performs the duties
of the President" in case of absence or incapability.  One person
suggested that we should continue the remainder of the year with Jim
being 1st VP but acting as president, with no replacements.  My problem
with that course of action is that it leaves us one man short, with 7
elected officers instead of 8.  This seems to violate the spirit of
Section 1 of our By-Laws, which say that the President shall appoint a
person to fill any vacancy.  Also, as I understand it, the corporate
laws in Oregon require us to have a President.

Another person suggested that Jim, in performing the duties of President
per Section 2 of the By-Laws, could appoint someone (such as himself) to
take over as President pending approval of the board, per Section 1 of
the By-Laws.  I think that's a good solution.  It means one more vote at
the beginning of the meeting, but it solves the "automatic promotion"
concern with a solution that is word-for-word from our By-Laws.

The next set of objections relate to whether Jim will serve as President
for 9 months, or for 21 months.  This is an issue I thought about at
length last week, and I want to share my reasoning with you.

Remember that the Federation's presidency is not a separately elected
position.  We have no procedures for electing a President.  Our P&Ps
state that the position of 1st Vice President is a three-year
commitment: one year as 1st VP, one year as President, one year as Past
President.  The expectation of the voters was that Jim Rogers would
become President in September, 2007, and Past President in September,
2008.  In my opinion, having him perform the duties of President for the
remainder of this year should not interfere with that normal
progression.  It seems to me that doing anything else would represent
even more deviation and upheaval than we already have.

One person suggested to me that whoever Jim appoints as 1st VP should
advance to President in the fall.  I'm uncomfortable with that.  Like
the situation with Gerald Ford in 1974, it would give us a president who
had not been elected to any office.  Another pointed out section XV of
Robert's Rules, which says that a person who takes over and serves more
than half of a term is considered to have served the entire term. 
However, this clause is really intended for use with groups that have
term limits in their by-laws.

Jim was elected to serve for three years; the only way to fulfill that
mandate is to have him become or remain President in September.

Perhaps one compromise would be to use the term "President Pro Tem" for
the remainder of this year.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

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