House Meetings

House meetings are for the purpose of keeping the general body of the house informed of the house status, facilitating social interaction, and having the group vote on how to operate the co-op.

All North Campus Cooperative Houses are governed by the ICC Standing Rules and the Constitution & Standing Rules of the House. These documents can be found online and are often posted around the building. All citations given are to the House Constitution unless otherwise stated.

Structure

House Meetings generally use the following structure:

• Meeting Minutes approval (ask Members to request changes, 2 min)
• House Officer Announcements (~15 min)
• Board Rep Time (5 min)
• Topical House Discussions (i.e. Work Holiday discussion, usually 15+ min each)
• House Proposals (~10 min ea.)
• Release Requests (5 min ea.), including Food Release, Work Release, and House Charges Release
• Non-Student Approvals (5 min ea.)
• Member Time (10 min)
• Pinecones (5 min)
• Meeting Adjourned.

The specific order of the House Meeting agenda can vary (this is from the Fall/Winter 2016 - 2017 agendas).

Facilitation

The President keeps order at meetings and allows members to speak, giving each member a fair chance to speak. The President may participate in discussion but should relinquish the chair temporarily when doing so in order to remain impartial.

Frequency

Regular House meetings are held every two weeks, and special House meetings are called when extraordinary business must be dealt with. House meetings follow the common rules of order called parliamentary procedure, except where otherwise specified in the House Constitution.

How to participate in House meetings

Hitchhiking

Three types of things happen at House meetings: announcements and reports, open discussion, and proposals. Members who wish to speak raise their hand and are added to a queue (often called the stack) by the President. ICC tradition allows “hitchhiking”, whereby members “jump the queue” by putting out their thumb to indicate that they wish to add a short comment to the previous statement.

Straw Poll

Sometimes, during the course of discussion, a member asks for a straw poll of members. This is a non-binding vote that helps members determine the group opinion.

Proposals

Proposals for consideration at House meetings must be emailed to the President to be added to the next House meeting’s agenda. Only proposals on the meeting agenda, or secondary motions made to these proposals (like amendments), may be debated at the House meeting. During a meeting, any member may request to add a proposal to the agenda, but the House must unanimously consent to adding it. Any other member can object to adding it (III.A.4).

Proposals are debated in the following way:

• A member makes a proposal, stating it as an affirmative action to be taken. If the member is absent, the President states it.
• The Presidents asks for a second. At least one other member must say “I second the motion” or simply “second.” If none does, there is no further discussion of the proposal.
• The President asks other members if they have any questions to clarify the proposal.
• The President allows members to discuss the proposal. By tradition, if the proposal concerns a specific member, that member leaves the room during the discussion.
  • Any member may propose an amendment to the proposal under discussion. This secondary motion must be discussed and voted on before returning to consideration of the original proposal. By house tradition, a member may amend his or her own proposal by “friendly amendment” without a vote to do so.
  • Any member may move to close debate and vote immediately, but this motion must be passed by a ⅔ majority rather than a simple majority (“half plus one”).
• The President either:
• Asks for objections to the proposal. Any member may object or ask for more time to consider the proposal. If this happens, the President must put the question (see below). Otherwise, the proposal is adopted.
  • Puts the question. The President states the proposal to be voted on. This is done if anyone objects to the proposal (as above) or if the President feels that it is too controversial to be considered without a vote.
    • Any member may call for a ballot vote on the proposal. This is then conducted according to the House Constitution (III.C.3). All members, including the President, may cast a ballot.
    • Assuming no member calls for a ballot vote, the President, at his or her discretion, conducts a voice vote or hand vote, asking for supporters and then opponents of a proposal (but not abstentions). If the results of a voice vote are not clear, a hand vote must be held. If the result of a hand vote is not clear, the hands must be counted. The President only votes to break a tie in order not to influence members’ votes.

Majority vote

Since attendance is not taken at House meetings, it is assumed (though not explicitly defined in the Constitution) that business is conducted by majority vote of all members choosing to vote on a particular proposal, not of all members present at the meeting (or of the whole House membership). Therefore, proposals pass if a majority of members voting vote “yes”.

Absentee Participation

If you are not able to attend a meeting but still want your voice to be heard on an issue, you have a couple of options:

• Email the President a statement to be read during the meeting.
• Authorize a proxy vote on a proposal on the agenda. This is done in one of two ways:
  • Authorize another member to cast a vote on your behalf. You must inform the President of your designation by email.
  • Inform the President of your views directly so that he or she can add your vote in support or opposition of the proposal.
• Ask another member to call for a ballot vote on the issue of concern to you so that you can have a vote on the issue.

If a ballot vote is called and you are out of town, you can vote by email by sending your vote to the president (III.C.3.f).