APPENDIX A

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Procedures for BCHPA meetings:

The following shall be the Procedures for all BCHPA meetings.


Educational gatherings:

From time to time the BCHPA or its branches may have gatherings of a purely informative or educational nature in which no business is to be decided.

This type of meeting will be conducted as organized and will not be subject to these standing rules of order.

Minutes of these gatherings are not necessary but the organizer of the activity or the secretary of the branch may wish to forward information on the topics discussed to the secretary of the BCHPA for inclusion in the BCHPA annual report


Changes to the Procedures:

These procedures, once adopted, may be changed by an extraordinary motion requiring the same notice and voting majority as changes to the constitution and bylaws.


General Business Meetings:

General Principle:

In all business meetings each member is entitled to be heard and heard with respect within the guidelines of the standing rules of order.

Members may disagree with each other on the matters being discussed but it is inappropriate to be disagreeable to one another.

The chair is obligated to ensure this expectation is enforced.


Notice of meeting:

Each member is entitled to know when and where a business meeting is to be held.

BCHPA meeting dates and locations may be decided by a meeting of the membership, the executive or the president.

The president shall call a BCHPA general meeting upon the request of 30% of the BCHPA members or two or more branches.

Branch meeting dates and locations may be decided by a meeting of the membership, the executive or the president of the branch.

The branch president shall call a branch meeting upon the request of 30% of the branch members.

Except when it is otherwise impossible to do, a notice detailing the time, place, and date of the meeting shall be given at least 30 days in advance by mail or an electronic communication.

Where such notice is impossible to give each member shall be personally contacted as soon as is practicable outlining the purpose and the time, place, and date of the meeting.

Where meeting schedules are adopted for the year, no further notice is required but may be given as a courtesy.

Extraordinary resolutions shall require 90 days notice of the meeting time and place.

The notice shall include the resolution to be discussed as well as a notice to the effect that the motion may be moved with or without amendments at the meeting.


Meeting agendas:

Voting:

Prior to the commencement of a general meeting procedures shall be adopted to ensure only BCHPA members propose or vote on any motion, stand for election, or cast ballots.

Motions require a mover; a member who is the main proponent of the idea, and a seconder, another member who also agrees the matter should be discussed.

A motion that does not have a seconder shall not be considered, although the minutes may indicate a member attempted to make a motion, which did not receive a seconder.

Members must be present to vote or move or second motions.

For most matters voting shall be by show of hands or of the device or symbol that has been distributed to indicate membership.

However when elections are held they shall be conducted by secret ballots.

Secret ballots shall also be used when a second recount is required after a close vote on an issue.

The first recount after a close vote shall be by show of hands or of the device or symbol that has been distributed to indicate membership.

If, after that recount, the decision of the meeting is still unclear, the second recount shall be by secret ballot.


Adoption of the agenda

The first item of business of all BCHPA general meetings shall be the adoption of the agenda.

It is the responsibility of the president of the BCHPA or the branch to ensure an agenda is presented at the start of each meeting.

S/he shall ensure all items submitted in advance by his/her executive are incorporated into the proposed agenda.

Motions submitted in advance by members shall also be incorporated into the proposed agenda.

To facilitate the business of the meeting time limits may be placed on agenda items.

If time limits are adopted, the meeting will proceed to the vote on the matter being discussed at the appropriate time, unless a motion to amend the agenda to extend the time limit is adopted.

Since such a motion would be to amend the agenda subsequent to its adoption, it will require two-thirds majority vote to be adopted.

Adoption of the agenda requires a motion with a mover and a seconder.

Members shall be given the opportunity to discuss the agenda, and, if they so choose, to change it by adding or deleting items, or reorganizing the order in which items are to be discussed, provided that the proposed changes are consistent with these rules of order.

Voting members may change the order of business proposed by a motion to amend.

An amendment, at this point on the agenda, requires a mover and a seconder and a majority vote of the members to be adopted.

The agenda shall be considered adopted when a majority of the members vote to adopt it.

Subsequent to its adoption, changes to the agenda require a motion with a mover and a seconder and a two-thirds majority vote to be adopted.

Adoption of the minutes:

The second item of business shall be the adoption of the minutes.

Members shall be given the opportunity to discuss the minutes, and, if they so choose, to correct them.

If there are no errors or omissions in the minutes the chair may ask if there is unanimous consent to adopt the minutes as circulated.

If there is unanimous consent the minutes will reflect that the members adopted the minutes as circulated.

If the chair fails to get unanimous consent to the adoption of the minutes, then their adoption shall require a motion to adopt, with a mover and seconder, and a majority vote of the members to be adopted.

If there are errors or omissions in the minutes a motion to correct them shall be considered.

This motion requires a mover and a seconder, and a majority vote of the members to be adopted.

Alternatively the chair may ask if there is unanimous consent to change the minutes to incorporate the corrections, and, if there is, to declare that the minutes are adopted as corrected.

If there is unanimous consent the minutes will reflect that the members adopted the minutes as corrected.

Matters arising from the minutes should be considered immediately after the adoption of the minutes unless the matter has been included on the agenda under old business at the time of the adoption of the agenda.

Receipt of reports:

The third item of business shall be receipt of reports if any.

Reports, when given, should allow for members to ask questions regarding that report.

It is preferable for the report to be completed before the report is opened to questions.

The agenda may allow for the time period for each report and questions on it to be limited.

Time limits for reports and questions on the report should be separate items to preclude overly long reports from barring questions upon it.

Members may ask more than one question on a report but the chair shall have the discretion of recognizing questions from other members before returning to those questions from an individual member with multiple questions.

Business arising from the reports should be considered immediately after the questions on the report conclude unless the matter has been included on the agenda under new business at the time of the adoption of the agenda.

There is no need to have a separate motion to receive a report after it has been given because members have already agreed to receive it when the agenda was adopted.

A motion to accept a financial report is in order, however, because it indicates the members have agreed to the information reported.

Elections:

From time to time general meetings are required to conduct elections for the BCHPA or its branches.

It would be appropriate to begin those elections following the receipt of reports.

Elections may take considerable time and may continue on throughout the rest of the meeting.

In conducting an election the chair shall first call for a report, if any, from the nominations committee, and then for further nominations from the floor.

If the chair is one of the participants in the election, another member shall chair that portion of the meeting.

Normally the chair will ask for further nominations three times. After the membership has had the opportunity to submit further nominations a motion to close nominations is in order. It requires a mover and a seconder, is non debatable, and requires a majority vote to pass.

Alternatively when no further nominations are forthcoming, the chair may move immediately to the conduct of the election.

When multiple nominations are received elections shall be conducted by secret ballot.

A person shall be declared elected when s/he receives a majority of the valid ballots cast in the election, or a person may be declared elected by acclamation if no other member wishes to contest the election.

Old business:

The next item on the agenda shall be old business:

Old business is given priority because this part of the agenda includes motions arising from the matters discussed but not decided at a previous meeting.

Such matters should be disposed of before the meeting moves on to discuss new items.

Each motion shall require a mover and a seconder and a requires a majority vote to be adopted.

 

New business:          

The next item on the agenda shall be new business:

This part of the agenda shall first deal with motions placed on the agenda under new business at the beginning of the meeting.

When those motions have been dealt with, the meeting may consider motions that arise from discussion during the meeting.

Each motion shall require a mover and a seconder and requires a majority vote to be adopted.

If someone, at this point, wishes to move a motion on a matter which could have been placed on the agenda at the beginning of the meeting and which did not arise out of the discussions at the meeting, the chair may ask if there is unanimous consent to consider the matter.

If there is no objection the meeting may then consider the motion but if there is an objection the person wishing to introduce the new matter must make a motion to amend the agenda to discuss the proposed motion.

This motion shall require a mover and a seconder and a requires a two-thirds majority vote to change the agenda.

If the meeting agrees to amend the agenda to hear the motion, the motion may then be placed on the floor.

At this point it shall require a mover and a seconder and a majority vote to be adopted.

After completion of these items the chair may ask if there is unanimous consent to adjourn.

If there is no objection s/he may declare the meeting adjourned.

Alternatively a member may move that the meeting adjourn.

A motion to shall require a mover and a seconder and a majority vote to be adopted.

Once the meeting is adjourned it may not be reconvened without giving all members the appropriate notice of meeting.

 

Types of Motions:

The following motions are the only motions, which will be considered by a BCHPA business meeting.

 

Motions:

When considering a motion, the paramount consideration is that the proponent, and any opponent, of it is acting in the best interest of the BCHPA and its membership.

Any imputation as to the motivation or character of a speaker is out of order and shall not be tolerated by the chair or the meeting.

All motions require a mover and a seconder.

There are three forms of motions: main motions, amendments to the main motion, and amendments to amendments of the main motion.

Normally all motions are debatable and members are recognized to speak by the chair in the order they appear on the floor.

Normally all motions require a majority vote of the members to be adopted but some, such as those changing the agenda subsequent to its adoption require a two thirds majority and extraordinary resolutions require a seventy-five percent majority vote to be adopted. 90 days notice of an Extraordinary resolution must be provided to BCHPA membership


Main motions
:

Motions may be made in the form of a motion that seeks to have the BCHPA endorse a position statement or policy that is consistent with the purposes of the BCHPA or that gives direction to the officers of the BCHPA to pursue a position or policy that is consistent with the purposes of the BCHPA.

A main motion shall succinctly and clearly state the issue to be addressed as a directive, procedure or policy.

It shall not include supporting statements unless it is the intention of the mover and seconder that all of the supporting statements also be adopted as a directive, procedure or policy.

A main motion requires a majority vote of the members to be adopted.

It is helpful to the conduct of the meeting but not mandatory, for motions to be clearly written out and given to the secretary prior to being introduced to the meeting.

Once a motion has been moved and seconded the chair recognizes the mover of the motion to introduce debate on the matter.

Thereafter the chair recognizes members in the order that they indicate a desire to speak to the motion.

From time to time members may feel that they have special information to present to the membership but that does not give them the right to interrupt the order of speakers already being recognized by the chair.

Members entering debates should bring new insight to the debate and should refrain from simply repeating comments that have already been heard.

Members are limited to speaking only once on each motion for a maximum of three minutes

Members may speak only once on each main motion, only once on amendments to the main motion, and only once on amendments to amendments of the main motion.

Members may ask unlimited questions of the chair to clarify the intent or the effect of a motion but once a member states his/her position on the motion no further questions from that member are in order.

Where substantial debate on the issue has been heard on only one side of the issue the chair may ask if there are any contrary views to be considered and then hear from those members before returning to the original order of members appearing on the floor.

If there is no contrary view forthcoming the chair may ask the members for their consent to immediately consider the question.

After both sides of the debate have been heard and the chair is satisfied that the issue has been fairly discussed, a motion to “call the question” is in order.

Such a motion requires a mover and a seconder. It is non-debatable and requires a majority vote to pass.

If the motion passes the meeting moves immediately to vote on the main motion, the amendment or the amendment to the amendment that was being discussed.

If the meeting were discussing an amendment to an amendment or an amendment, the meeting would then resume discussion on the part of the motion that had not yet been disposed of.

Members should refrain from simply yelling out “call the question!” as this can be disruptive to the meeting and has no effect upon the discussion.

Motions may be disposed of by in a manner that makes clear the position of the BCHPA by their adoption or by their defeat, both requiring a majority vote of the members.

The BCHPA may wish to receive further information on the matter before taking a position or may not wish to take a position on the matter and may dispose of a motion without taking a position by referring it to another body, committee or meeting.

Such a referral may, but does not have to, include a request for a report back at a future date but such a request for a report back is not mandatory.

If members simply do not wish to take a position on a matter they may also move to table it.

Both motions to table and to refer require a majority vote of the members to be adopted.

Should a member believe that the discussion of the motion could be harmful to the organization s/he may move “Objection to consideration.”

Objection to consideration requires a mover and a seconder and must be made before discussion on the motion being objected to begins.

This is a motion on which only very limited debate is allowed.

Only the mover may explain why s/he believes discussion of the matter might be harmful to the BCHPA then meeting will then immediately proceed to vote on whether to consider the matter.

If the “Objection to consideration” motion is adopted by a majority vote, there will be no further discussion of the matter without a position having been taken on it.

Should a member have reason to believe the chair has erred in the conduct of the meeting s/he shall immediately rise on a “Point of Order”.

A “Point of Order” may interrupt the speaking order.

The member shall clearly identify what part of the Standing Rules and Procedures is not being followed.

The chair shall immediately respond to the Point of Order by, either by agreeing with it and amending the conduct of the meeting from that point forward, or by explaining his/her contrary position.

Following the chair’s explanation s/he shall immediately ask for “A motion to sustain the chair.”

This motion requires a mover and a seconder and is non- debatable.

A negative decision on such a motion is not a criticism of the chair.

The chair is insensitive to the outcome and will be guided by the decision of the meeting.

Should there be no motion to sustain the chair forthcoming, or should the motion to sustain the chair not be successful the chair shall proceed in accordance with the rules suggested by the member but, should the motion to sustain the chair be adopted by a majority vote, the meeting will proceed in accordance with the ruling by the chair.

Challenges to the chair or conduct of the meeting shall not be considered after the meeting has made a decision on an issue or after the meeting has adjourned unless the matter concerns the rights of those members not present at the meeting.

Motions, once placed on the floor, become the property of the meeting and may not be withdrawn by the mover or seconder until the meeting disposes of them.

Motions may be amended, if the members so choose, to clarify the main motion. A member may not amend his/her own motion.

An amendment may not be contrary to the intent of the main motion but only to clarify it. An amendment requires a mover and seconder.

An amendment, once proposed, becomes the sole topic for debate until it is dealt with and requires a majority vote of the members to take effect.

Discussion of the main motion while the amendment is being dealt with is not in order.

An amendment being discussed may be further clarified by another proposed amendment

The amendment to the amendment, once proposed, becomes the sole topic for debate until it is dealt with and requires a majority vote of the members to take effect.

Discussion of the original amendment while the amendment to the amendment is being dealt with is not in order.

Further amendments are not in order while an amendment to an amendment is being discussed.

The secondary amendment must be dealt with before further amendments to the amendment may be considered.

Once a motion is disposed of by its adoption, defeat, referral, or tabling it may not be discussed again at the same meeting unless a motion to reconsider is brought to the meeting by a member who was on the prevailing side of its disposition.

A motion to reconsider requires a two-thirds affirmative vote to be adopted as it involves change to the agenda.

Policy Motions:  From time to time is appropriate that the BCHPA develop a policy position.

Policy positions are ones that assert the BCHPA belief about an issue but for which the BCHPA cannot control the outcome.

Issues such as the importation of bees, pesticide use, or similar items are examples of this type of motion.

Such motions should begin with the stem “That the BCHPA policy is….”. Followed by the proposed policy. Should a member make a motion that the chair believes is a policy statement, the chair should clarify that before the debate begins and suggest the appropriate change to the wording of the motion.

Policies, once adopted, remain the policy of the organization until they are removed or amended.

The secretary shall keep a record of all such policies and shall ensure that they are placed on a meeting agenda for reconsideration at least once within each five-year period after their adoption.

Procedure Motions: From time to time is appropriate that the BCHPA develop procedure positions.

Procedure positions are ones that the BCHPA can control the outcome. Issues such as the frequency or location of meetings, reports required of its officers or similar items are examples of this type of motion.

Such motions should begin with the stem “That the BCHPA procedure is….” followed by the proposed procedure. Should a member make a motion that the chair believes is a procedure statement, the chair should clarify that before the debate begins and suggest the appropriate change to the wording of the motion.

Procedures, once adopted, remain the procedure of the organization until they are removed or amended.

The secretary shall keep a record of all such procedures and shall ensure that they are placed on a meeting agenda for reconsideration at least once within each five-year period after their adoption.
Executive and table officer Meetings:

Executive and table officer meetings shall follow the general outline of general business meetings: advance notice of the meeting and its proposed agenda, approval of prior minutes, old business and new business, followed by adjournment.

It is appropriate to have such meetings either in a physical location where all members are gathered together or by teleconference or telecommunication mediums.

Meetings shall be scheduled by the table officers or the executive concerned but may also be called by the chair or any three members providing that appropriate notice can be given to each member.

Because these meetings involve a smaller number of members it is appropriate to seek consensus on the issues before the meeting and limits on the speaking to various issues may not be appropriate.

The chair should endeavour to ensure that all members who wish to state their opinions on the issues being discussed are heard.

Members of the group should refrain from being repetitive and ensure their comments pertain to the matter at hand.

Where consensus is reached a motion to that effect should be entered in the minutes.

Where consensus is not possible or when one or more members appear to be dominating debate, it is appropriate for the chair to follow the rules for regular business meetings.


Matters to be discussed in private:

From time to time matters arise which the discussion of in public might be harmful to the BCHPA or its members, or simply inappropriate to discuss in public.

Such issues might include financial matters, personnel matters or matters concerning the conduct of a member or members.

A motion to “move into private session to discuss confidential matters” is appropriate in these circumstances.

The motion requires a mover and a seconder and requires a majority vote to be adopted.

It is inappropriate for members to share the discussions occurring in these private sessions with non-members.

While the members meet in private they may continue to make motions but, in the disposition of such motions and before the public session of the meeting resumes, they should also agree upon what information about the motions, if any, will be made public.

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