Appoint, Elect, or Select?
Paul McClintock, CP-T, PRP
Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR, 10th edition) sometimes uses “appoint(ment)” in a general sense which includes election. Page 474 has a heading “Appointment of Committees” and a sub‑heading of “Methods of Appointment” and included in the 5 methods that follow is (a) “Election by ballot” and (b) “Nominations ¼ with viva‑voce election.”
Interestingly, RONR committee appointment method “e” is a motion which lists the recommended members (p. 479), and “appointment” is used until it discusses how to handle other names being proposed to replace name(s) already given, and “election” is use to describe how to handle this latter case.
“Select/ion” is used in RONR too (e.g., p. 170, l. 3; p. 477, l. 13; p. 478, l. 26).
Recommendation, in general:
* use “selection” for the general term which includes appointment by a single person and election by a group;
* use “appointment” for the by‑a‑single‑person purpose; and
* use “election” for the selection by a group.
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[Paul McClintock is a familiar author to the readers of the Parliamentary Journal. – Ed]
from Parliamentary Journal Vol 51 No 2 Page 80, 2010.