Rules and Procedures for the conduct of the Annual Business Meeting

  1. The presiding officer of the Annual Business Meeting shall be the President or in his or her absence, in order of succession, the President-Elect or a member of the Executive Board selected by the Board.
  2. The presiding officer shall determine the presence of a quorum and call the meeting to order.
  3. A quorum, as defined in the Association’s bylaws shall be 250 members. If a quorum is not present, business transacted by the body shall be unofficial and non-binding on the Association.
  4. The order of business for the Annual Business Meeting shall be as announced in the meeting notice previously published.
  5. Unless otherwise specified by AAA’s bylaws, or these rules and procedures, Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the conduct of the Annual Business Meeting.
  6. All voting shall be by general consent or by a majority of AAA members present and voting, unless otherwise specified in the AAA bylaws or Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised.
  7. Voting shall be by general consent or by voice vote, unless a vote by standing is ordered by the presiding officer or by request of a member present.
  8. Voting by proxy is not permitted.
  9. The presiding officer is responsible for insuring the orderly conduct of business before the body. To that end, no member may speak before the body unless properly recognized by the presiding officer.
  10. In an effort to insure against one-sided presentations, the presiding officer may recognize speakers in such order as to present alternative pro and con presentations on a proposition before the body.
  11. In an effort to insure that all members have equal opportunity to be heard on a proposition, and that the efficient conduct of business is not thwarted by needless repetition of the same argument or point, the presiding officer may limit the number of times a member is recognized to speak on the same proposition.
  12. In order to insure that there is adequate time to consider all matters scheduled to be considered by the body, the presiding officer may limit the time for consideration of each agenda item, the number of speakers to be recognized on each item and the amount of time available to each speaker.
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Adopted by the Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association, July 6, 2002