At the last RCSC board meeting (3/14/22) there were 2 significant comments made by 2 board members regarding Robert's Rules of order and where they fit in. President Lehrer removed 2 items from the board meeting agenda: Member Comments and Board Member Comments. Director McAdam made a motion to restore those items to the Agenda (just for the 3/14/22 meeting). There was some contentious discussion. The motion passed and the items were added back to the agenda. Now on to the contentious discussion: Director Lenefsky claimed that the members wanted Roberts Rules of Order and that Roberts Rules of Order did not allow for member comments at a meeting. He referred to a motion made last year to change a bylaw regarding use of Robert's Rules of Order. The membership did not want the phrase "shall use Roberts Rules of order" to change to "may use Roberts Rules of Order". He was stating that we (the membership) wanted everything to be run by Roberts Rules of Order (above and ahead of Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws). His argument was totally in error. The uproar was over changing one word: "shall" to "may". Members felt that the board should not have control over when to use or not to use Roberts Rules of Order. It was seen as a power grab by the board where the board would invoke Roberts Rules of Order if it supported an unpopular board position. The motion to change this one word failed to get a second and died. It didn't get to a board vote. At that point, the status quo should have remained the same: allowing Member Comments and Board Comments at board meetings. It did for a few months until the board seemed to adopt a strategy to put Roberts Rules of Order first. Director McAdam rebutted Director Lenefsky's comments with the following statement: "We did not vote to say that Roberts Rules of Order would eliminate any statements in our by-laws. What we did say is that where our by-laws are silent, Roberts Rules of Order is the parliamentary rule book that we follow as the default mechanism when our by-laws are silent." Direct quote - check out the video of the board meeting. What people need to understand is simple: Articles First, By-Laws Second, Roberts Rules of Order Third. The board is wrong putting Roberts Rules of Order, FIRST. One final comment - When it came to Board Comments, President Lehrer refused to use the word comments and said "Are there any Board Member Announcements?" (repeatedly). It's no wonder people are arguing over the minutiae of Robert's Rules of Order, the Articles of Incorporation and the By-laws. Its the only recourse the membership has at this point. This is the part of the discussion that puts people to sleep and think there is nothing going on but complaining.
And they have no understanding of Robert's Rules special rules of order. Director Lenefsky seems to think that adhering to Robert's Rules is an all or none deal. I don't think he understands that if you don't like a Robert's Rule you can write a special rule of order that supercedes the Robert's Rule!
