In this instructional video, David Price explains that nominations generally do not require a seconder unless a organization’s governing documents explicitly mandate one. He contrasts seconding a motion—used to gauge support before debate—with nominating a candidate, where support is demonstrated through the vote. Price outlines the chair’s responsibilities when opening nominations: announcing the position, receiving a nomination, confirming the nominee’s acceptance, and then soliciting additional nominations. He discusses common practices regarding the number of nominations, how to handle nominees who are absent (phone confirmation, postponement, or conditional election), and the potential issues when a nominee is elected without prior consent. The key takeaway is to consult governing documents to determine if a seconder is required; otherwise, nominations proceed without one.
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David Price here, the short guy who helps you walk tall. From time to time I'm asked about nominations and in particular seconding of nominations. Well, it's easy. Nominations in general do not need to be seconded unless your governing documents say a seconder is required. Most governing documents don't say that in my experience. But if they do, then you require a seconder for the nomination. But if they don't, you can just receive the nomination. But let's look at why that's the case. If you're seconding a motion, then that's an indication that there is some support for the motion that's being put forward. So seconding is a good way to test the waters before you let it go on to debate. But in a nomination, the support comes from the vote. when you put the nominations to the vote. This is what a chair needs to do when they're opening for nominations. They say, is there a nomination for the position of, let's say, secretary? And Fred Brown says, yes, I'll nominate a secretary. Or another person can say, I will nominate Fred Brown. The first thing the chair needs to say is, Fred, do you accept the nomination? If he says yes, then there's a legitimate nomination. And then, then you would say, are there Any other nominations, and the same process. You can have any, any number of nominations, again depending on your governing documents, but generally it's not uncommon to have 2 or 3 nominations for a position, but it's actually more common to only get the one. For each nomination, you need to check that they are willing to accept the nomination. Now, it becomes tricky if the person being nominated is not physically there and you're not able to check whether they will accept the nomination. Well, different organizations do it in different ways. Sometimes they call them and ask. Sometimes they simply don't proceed with the election of that particular position. And sometimes they're elected on the proviso that they agree at the next meeting to accept the nomination. So it's not uncommon for a person to arrive at a meeting to find that at the AGM they were elected as the treasurer. Well, they may not want to be the treasurer, so that causes a bit of problem. But go back to your governing documents. If they say a nomination needs a seconder, then you need a seconder. If they don't say anything, then you don't for nominations.
