[GSA Council] Two thirds majority "of members present"

[gretchen k]

hey keroles and Councillors--

thanks for the link keroles.

as for the GSA bylaws, the quote i inserted in the subject is impt to
recall, see *21.3* on amending the bylaws: "Any Motion to amend the Bylaws
must be adopted by a two third (2/3) majority of the members present at the
Assembly. Any amendment to the Bylaws shall take effect once adopted by the
General Assembly of members."

so at council and the GA, when amending the bylaws the tally of the vote is *of
the members present*. last night's vote re 6.1 that resulted in 4 - for, 2
- opposed, and 4 - abstaining did not receive a two-thirds vote and thus
did not pass.

the section you forwarded also states this, but in a confusing way. i think
the GSA bylaws state clearly that to adopt the motion you need a vote of
the members present. voting to abstain in this case does count towards the
tally of two-thirds, but is recorded as an abstention.

hope this helps.

--gretchen

On Fri, Dec 19, 2014 at 1:37 AM, Keroles Riad <k_riad at encs.concordia.ca>
wrote:

> Hi,
> In Question 6 on the official Roberts rules site (
> http://www.robertsrules.com/faq.html):
>
> *Question 6:*
> *Do abstention votes count?*
> *Answer:*
> The phrase “abstention votes” is an oxymoron, an abstention being a
> refusal to vote. To abstain means to refrain from voting, and, as a
> consequence, there can be no such thing as an “abstention vote.”
> In the usual situation, *where either a majority vote or a two-thirds
> vote is required, abstentions have absolutely no effect on the outcome of
> the vote since what is required is either a majority or two thirds of the
> votes cast.* On the other hand, if the vote required is a majority or two
> thirds of the members *present*, or a majority or two thirds of the
> entire membership, an abstention will have the same effect as a “no” vote.
> Even in such a case, however, an abstention is not a vote and is not
> counted as a vote. [RONR (11th ed.), p. 400, ll. 7-12; p. 401, ll. 8-11;
> p. 403, ll. 13-24; see also p. 66 of RONRIB.]
>
> Thanks
> Keroles Riad
> Research assistant and INDI masters student
> B.Eng Mechanical Engineering
> Laboratory for the Physics of Advanced Materials
> Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
> Concordia University
> 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West
> Montreal, Quebec
> Canada H3G 1M8
> Ph: 1-514-476-3686
>
> Follow me
> @Kerologist
> Call
> Send SMS
> Add to Skype
> You'll need Skype CreditFree via Skype
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/gsaconcordia/attachments/20141219/fa1e380c/attachment.html>