OVERVIEW  

During a meeting, while in discussion of a Voting Item, a member can make a Motion and another member may Second that motion.  At this point, a third member may wish to offer an Amendment to the Motion being made.  

If the motion to amend is seconded, the Meeting Manager can “automatically” create a new Voting Item, just preceding the original item being discussed.  This item will automatically be titled “Motion to Amend”, and you will be able to edit / describe the item immediately via a pop-up window during the meeting.  

You will then be able to Discuss and Vote on this Motion to Amend.   

After action (voting) on this Motion to Amend has taken place, you will be returned to the original item, which – if the motion to amend passed – will need to be edited to indicate that it is “As Amended” to distinguish it from the original item, and it may be voted on. 

DETAILS / SEQUENCE OF EVENTS 

During discussion on an agenda item, with a Motion and Second already in place; 

A Member Makes a Motion to Amend 

A member can Motion to Amend an item by clicking the Amend button presented to them on their device (in the Member App). This is IF you have enabled the ability for Members to Amend (on the Member App) in Meeting Configuration / Setup.  

Clerk Makes a Motion to Amend for a Member 

If you have not enabled the ability to Amend within the Member App, the Clerk may alternatively click on the M checkbox to the right of the requesting Member’s name in the Meeting Manager, to enact a Motion to Amend, but ONLY IF another Member has already made a Motion and it has been Seconded.     

Clerk may Accept or Ignore the Motion to Amend 

When a Motion to Amend has been made (by a Member or from within the Meeting Manager), you will see a prompt in the Meeting Manager asking you to Accept or Ignore the motion to amend (as follows): 

If you Accept the motion to amend, the M will stay highlighted on your Meeting Manager screen and the Members will see who has made a Motion to Amend on their voting devices (in the Member App) and they will have the option to touch Second to proceed with the amendment. 

If, after additional discussion, the motion is requested to be withdrawn, you can press “Ignore” on the previous pop-up and choose a reason to withdraw the motion to amend as shown in the sample pop-up below: 

Motion to Amend Item is Auto-Created to be Voted on 

Assuming the motion to amend is Accepted, you’ll see a new item dialogue box open “automatically” in the Meeting Manager (as seen on the screen below). The Item Name will be labeled “Motion to Amend”.  We recommend that you change or add to the Item Name and add details as needed to describe the specifics of the Amendment. Once complete, don’t forget to select OK.   

EXAMPLE: You may wish to add to the Title “Motion to Amend – Ordinance 123”, so it is clear what item is being amended. You may also want to put more details as to the discussions about what is being amended in either the Brief or Item Summary. If the proposed amendment language is lengthy, we recommend the Item Summary whose text capacity is not limited. 

Upon adding the needed detail for this Amendment and pressing OK, you will then be in discussion mode (as shown on your Meeting Manager) for the item in which this amendment has been proposed. Just like conducting any other item on the agenda, you can take any notes as needed in the Meeting Notepad, and once discussion ends, you can move into Voting mode for this proposed amendment. 

When voting is completed on the newly added Amendment Item, the System will proceed to the next Agenda Item, which will be the Original Item for which the Amendment was proposed. Generally, the next action is to then have any additional discussion and the Vote to Approve the Original Item – As Amended.   

NOTES / SPECIAL SITUATIONS  

If you are having issues that are not successfully addressed above, or you are not successful signing into the Meeting Manager, please call OpenMeeting Customer Support at 320.249.0555.  

SPECIAL NOTE: You should see (in the Meeting Manager dropdown Agenda) that this amendment item has been automatically added to your agenda, just preceding the original item being amended. Thus, when you are done voting on the Amendment, the next item up for discussion/voting will be the original item. In most cases, you will want to vote on the main item “As Amended”, and we recommend that you add the words “As Amended” to the end of this item’s Title before voting on it. 

It could also be the case that the Members need additional discussion at a subsequent meeting, before the item (as amended) will be voted on. In that case, you may wish to skip the original item (which will be up next), or have discussion on it, but no vote.  If that is the case, you would use the dropdown Agenda List (in the Meeting Manager) and pick the next item on the Agenda to proceed with, after taking whatever notes are needed (in the Notepad) regarding the discussion of the original amended item, perhaps without voting on it.    

EXAMPLE:  Discussion on the Item that was amended may conclude that more discussion is needed before a final vote, and the members wish to push this item to the next meeting before voting. You could make any appropriate notes in the Meeting Notepad pertinent to the discussion that took place. These notes will be included in the meeting results file (minutes).  Then you can move to the next item in the agenda, without voting on the amended item.  Your notes take will be included in your minutes/result file, indicating that this item was tabled for more discussion / decision at the next meeting.