2006-2   SUSPEND THE RULES TO REMOVE PRESIDENT

Q. Our president has alienated most of our members, but the process
required to remove her from office under our bylaws is lengthy and
cumbersome. May we simply suspend the rules so as to relieve her of her
duties and put another person in her position?

A. First, the motion to Suspend the Rules applies only when "an assembly
wishes to do something during a meeting that it cannot do without
violating one or more of its regular rules." RONR (10th ed.), p. 252, l.
7-9 (emphasis added); see also p. xxii. Rules of order "relate to the
orderly transaction of business in meetings and to the duties of
officers in that connection." RONR (10th ed.), p. 15, l. 5-7 (emphasis
added). Consequently, Suspend the Rules cannot be used to remove from
the president (even temporarily) any of her administrative duties -
those related to the role of an executive officer that are distinct from
the function of presiding over the assembly at its meetings. Cf. RONR
(10th ed.), p. 440, l. 19-31.

Second, any one motion to Suspend the Rules that might limit the
authority or duties of the presiding officer during a meeting can be
effective, at most, for one session. RONR (10th ed.), p. 85, l. 14-20;
p. 87, l. 1-10; cf. p. 86, l. 4-6. Therefore, in order to prevent the
president from presiding during subsequent sessions, the motion to
Suspend the Rules would have to be renewed and separately adopted at
each of the sessions.

With these qualifications, it is indeed within the authority of the
assembly, by a two-thirds vote, to suspend the rules so as to take away
from the president the authority to preside during all or part of a
given session. This is so even if the bylaws contain a provision to the
effect that the president shall preside at all meetings, since such a
provision is clearly in the nature of a rule of order. See RONR (10th
ed.), p. 17, l. 22-24.

The requirement that "no rule protecting a minority of a particular size
can be suspended in the face of a negative vote as large as the minority
protected by the rule," RONR [10th ed.], p. 253, l. 8-10, does not
apply, since the rules specifying the authority of the presiding officer
do not protect a minority of one but rather outline duties established
for the good of the assembly as a whole. Similarly, the provision
preventing suspension of rules protecting a basic right of the
individual member, RONR [10th ed.], p. 255, l. 13-15 & 22-28, is
inapplicable since the presiding officer's authority derives not from
his or her basic rights as a member but rather from the duties of
office.

Normally, when the president is impeded in the exercise of his or her
office, a vice-president (or, in the absence of the vice-president,
another temporary presiding officer appointed or elected) takes over to
preside. RONR (10th ed.), p. 436-37. However, this rule could also be
suspended so that the motion to suspend the rules would not only deprive
the president of her authority to preside but also name the temporary
presiding officer to replace her.