Thursday, September 22, 2011

Not much point in having rules if you don't know what they are.

The Albuquerque School Board avers; their meetings are run according to Robert's Rules of Order.

During the meeting Wednesday, during a discussion/debate of an issue, someone "called the question".

According to Roberts Rules, the discussion ends immediately, and an immediate vote is taken on whether to call the question. If the majority votes yes, then another vote is taken on the question which is being decided. If the vote is no, the discussion begins again.

Maes held a vote to "call the question". It passed.
And then she moved on; that was the end of it.
They never voted on the actual motion.
They didn't pass anything. I hope it wasn't their vote to close
that poor Charter School. (Update; it the district has finally posted the video of the meeting; it was the CATA vote that wasn't really taken.)

I don't point to this seemingly careless error out of pettiness.
This wasn't the first time they've done this, link.

I have (politely!) informed them of their error. They won't acknowledge the problem. Neither will they acknowledge their error in making a motion by saying, I motion this, or I motion that.

No, no you don't. You either move to do this, or you make a motion to do that. Perhaps you offer a motion, but you don't move to do the thing.

They remain ignorant. or the very best, oblivious, of Roberts Rules of Order by their own deliberate choice. They don't have a real parliamentarian by their own deliberate choice.

And that's what makes it a big deal. It's not that they are ignorant of the vocabulary and the rules they pretend to follow, it's that they are, by their own deliberate choice.

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