"Ex-officio” means “by virtue of office”. An ex-officio member is a person who is automatically entitled to a position on a board or committee, for as long as he or she holds a certain office. An ex-officio position on a board or committee exists only if a governing document (legislation or bylaws) provides for it. For example, your Bylaws may state that: “The President shall be an ex-officio member of all committees, except the Nominating Committee.”

A person holding a stated office (e.g.: President, Mayor) becomes an ex-officio member of the stated decision-making bodies (boards, committees, etc.) as soon as he or she begins to hold the stated office. The person automatically stops being an ex-officio member when he or she stops holding the office that entitles him or her to the ex-officio position, i.e.: when his or her term of office ends naturally, or when he or she resigns or is removed from office.

Many people believe that an ex-officio member is not entitled to vote. In fact, this may not be the case. For example, if your Bylaws are silent on the rights of ex-officio members and prescribe Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised as your Parliamentary Authority, an ex-officio member would have all the rights (attending, making motions, speaking in debate, and voting) but none of the duties of other members (such as the duty to attend meetings). Under Robert, an ex-officio member is not counted in calculating the quorum and in determining whether a quorum is present at a meeting.

If the above statements come as a shock to you, you may want to review pages 440 and 466 in the tenth edition of “Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised.”

So what can you do if Robert is your parliamentary authority and you want to have non-voting ex-officio members? You can have your bylaws amended to include an explicit statement, such as: “The President shall be an ex-officio non-voting member of all Committees, except the Nominating Committee.” Bylaws supersede the parliamentary authority.