Roberts Rules of Order and TFA
I just listened to the KUOW report (not yet available) on the vote of the TFA member to teach Special Ed at Franklin High. What a mess and yet, interesting. Here's what I understand happened. They had six members in attendance (I believe Director Smith-Blum was missing). Apparently the vote was 3 yeses (Martin-Morris, DeBell and Carr) and 3 abstained votes. So the Board Manager said it did not pass. DeBell corrected her and said abstaining votes don't count, they have a quorum and the majority of the quorum said yes. THEN, Ron English, district counsel stepped up and said he wasn't sure. Now, as a former PTA president who is supposed to know Robert's Rules of Order (but I don't know them well), I do know there are two issues. One is what abstaining votes mean and the other is what constitutes a majority vote. "...Abstentions do not count in tallying the vote; when members abstain, they are in effect only attending the meeting to aid in consti...