Below is a letter from CD3 Chairman, Neanne Clinton, regarding a recent election their committee held, and an ongoing discussion with State Chairman Nathan Dahm.
Dear CD3 Member,
I am forwarding you the email that I have sent to Nathan Dahm concerning our meeting on December 2nd where we elected our new Vice Chairman and passed resolutions that concern CD3. Please let me know if you have any input by emailing me back directly, or if you have any questions. Thank you for all that you do for your counties and for CD3!
Blessings,
NeAnne
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Nathan,
I emailed you on January 3rd requesting which rule you are citing stating that vacant positions do count toward quorum, thank you for emailing me back on January 10th stating that you are referencing Rule 44.9(B), see footnote 1. I will share with you the information that I have collected over the last 6 months from long time GOP members, parliamentarians, and state legislators.
I researched and asked for input from the aforementioned people before our CD3 meeting in June and was told that quorum is adjusted to account for vacant individuals and double positions where one member holds two voting positions. I was advised that these vacancies and doubled votes are not counted toward quorum.
When a meeting was required to elect a Vice Chairmen for CD3, I requested an updated roster from the state office, emailing yourself and the State Secretary, on October 11th and November 28th, so that I could update contact information and send out a call for a meeting. I did not receive an updated roster in response to either of my requests.
Myself, Kenny Bob Tapp, and Joe Vaden diligently contacted members of CD3 from an old list and updated as many members as possible to ensure that we had a quorum for our December 2nd meeting. It is my goal to not waste the time or resources of CD3 members if we do not have a quorum to complete the business of a called meeting. We were able to verify that CD3 has at least 7 vacant voting seats and 8 seats that are doubled by a chair or vice chair of counties. These verified numbers reduce the number of individuals holding a seat by 11 votes, which then requires a quorum of 59 votes. There were 60 voting members present to vote in December.
There are 29 positions that have not been verified as to whether a voting member has been elected to that position and I do not have an updated roster with contact information so that I can do so. If any of those 29 positions are not held by an individual, then our quorum number will be even less.
At this time, I believe that I have done my due diligence in ensuring that the business conducted at the CD3 Meeting held on December 2nd was held in accordance with the GOP Rules and Robert’s Rules of Order and that Brian Hobbs was duly elected as the Vice Chairman of OK GOP Congressional District 3.
The GOP Rules and Robert’s Rules of Order will be referenced at the end of this letter.
I will be forwarding this information to the CD3 District Committee members that were present at the meeting and those that I have contact information for so that they are aware of the situation and can research for themselves the information that I have gathered from long time GOP members, parliamentarians, and OK state legislators on the matter.
I will also be forwarding the information to the CD3 State Committee members so that they are aware of the situation and have an opportunity to do their due diligence before the next State Committee Meeting in the event that this matter must be brought before that committee.
I look forward to your response and am requesting that you recognize the election of Brian Hobbs that was conducted by a quorum of the Congressional District 3 Committee on December 2nd, 2023.
Sincerely,
NeAnne Clinton
OK GOP Congressional District 3 Chair
The research that is referenced here is in response to your email to me dated December 30th:
NeAnne,
Thank you for sending over the minutes from the meeting. After reviewing them, we unfortunately have to notify you that CD3 did not achieve quorum for this meeting.
Quorum is based on the number of named members, so vacancies don’t actually lower that number. With 32 counties & 4 named members from each county, the number of members of the committee would be 128 (32 x4) with 50%+1 of that required to reach quorum which would equal 65 members.
Please let us know when you schedule another meeting to fill the Vice-Chair vacancy. It does seem like there was a consensus at the last meeting, so the only thing needed is to meet quorum. If we can be of any assistance, please let us know.
For the People,
Nathan Dahm
And your email from January 10th:
NeAnne, it is found in Rule 44.9(B), see footnote 1. The membership is a fixed membership, ie 128. So the quorum is 65 (64+1) and vacancies, as illustrated in the comment, are not taken into account. Our rules define the membership as named members, ie. a fixed number, not the members actually serving at any given time.
For the People,
Nathan Dahm
Parliamentary Advice on the Situation
According to OKGOP 19(b), the quorum of a committee is a “majority of those named to any committee.”
Chairman Dahm referenced Roberts Rules of Order 44:9(b) footnote 1, the only reference in Roberts that refers to a “fixed” membership (based on positions). However, “fixed” is used only when it is clearly outlined and we do not see “fixed” or “permanent” in our OKGOP Rules.
Instead, the term consistently used throughout Roberts is “entire membership” (RONR 3:3) which is “the total number of those who are members of the voting body at the time of the vote” (RONR 44:9(b)). A member is defined as a “person” (RONR 1:4), not a position. Roberts Rules encourages setting quorum in the bylaws at an attainable number of “members” (RONR 3:3, 40:3, 40:5).
Finally, Roberts Rules of Order explicitly says “one person, one vote…even if a person is elected or appointed to more than one position” (RONR 45:2). Since an individual can hold multiple positions on a committee in the OKGOP, both voting ability and quorum must be tied to the fundamental parliamentary principle of counting members (persons), not positions.
RONR 13:15 talks about “naming” members to a committee, clearly refers to individuals who are named to the committee. In greater Parliamentary Procedure, being “named” refers to individuals not positions.
There is no reference in the OKGOP Rules to “named members.“