What becomes of the Past Prez on resignation of President?

[Guest JPM]

Good evening,

Our president has just tendered his resignation, with 9 months remaining in his term.

According to our Bylaws, the 1st VP becomes Pres and shall remain as such for 9 months (until next AGM).

Many in the org suggest that the Past President's term is also complete, and his replacement ought to be appointed from a pool of qualified candidates in accordance with the bylaws.

Your thoughts?

[Kim Goldsworthy]

>> Many in the org suggest that the Past President's term is also complete,

>> and his replacement ought to be appointed from a pool of qualified candidates in accordance with the bylaws.

Bad news. (Or, good news, depending on how you look at it.)

The term "immediate past president" and the term "past president" is not used within the 700+ pages of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised [11th edition, 2011, DaCapo Press].

So, no page can be cited to answer your question authoritatively.

***

Some parliamentarians have opinion on the matter of "past presidents".

But since you have bylaws (viz., ". . . ought to be appointed from a pool of qualified candidates in accordance with the bylaws. . . ."), then perhaps you should obey your bylaws instead of obeying opinions.

[Guest]

Thank you for your reply, Potzbie.

Having completed his/her full term, the Pres becomes the PP and remains as such until a new Pres is elected.

Our bylaws address what to do in the event the PP cannot, or will not, complete his term. [IE: replacement will be appointed from a pool of qualified candidates]

Our bylaws do not, however, state that the PP's term has come to an end as a result of the Pres having resigned prior to completion of his term.

[Thomas Ralph]

The identity of the immediate past president is pretty clear — it's the guy who just resigned, assuming the resignation is accepted.

Many of us here recommend against giving an explicit role to the IPP to prevent this type of situation arising. It does seem your organization has a solution to this for when the IPP is unwilling to serve — and if the new IPP is so unwilling, why not appoint the guy who was IPP yesterday?

[Joshua Katz]

I don't see why the fellow who just resigned as President isn't now the Past President.

[Dan Honemann]

I don't think that any of this will make any sense at all unless we are told exactly what it is that the bylaws do say about the "Past President" (exact quotes, not a paraphrase), and even then none of it may make any sense.

This is a bylaws interpretation question, and not a question about any rule in Robert's Rules of Order. If an organization's bylaws make no sense, there isn't much that anyone here can do about it.

[hollasa]

5 hours ago, Godelfan said:

I don't see why the fellow who just resigned as President isn't now the Past President.

Well, apparently "Having completed his/her full term, the Pres becomes the PP and remains as such until a new Pres is elected." The president has not completed his/her full term, which would presumably mean they don't move into the "Past President Position". 

"Our bylaws address what to do in the event the PP cannot, or will not, complete his term." - the existing person in the "Past President Position" is still there, if the former Pres has not become the "Past President Position". 

As noted, though, this would be a bylaws interpretation question, depending on what the bylaws say, and not the paraphrased version.

[Gary Novosielski]

17 hours ago, Guest said:

Our bylaws do not, however, state that the PP's term has come to an end as a result of the Pres having resigned prior to completion of his term.

It seems to me that if the president has resigned, he has become the past president, so the old PP's office now has somebody else in it,  

Your bylaws may very well contradict that, but nothing in RONR does, so I think we will be of limited assistance in answering your question.  The answer will doubtless be found in your bylaws, not RONR.

[Guest]

Thank-you for your replies. I must first beg your forgiveness for being so terribly unclear...

"Having completed his/her full term, the Pres becomes the PP and remains as such until a new Pres is elected."

As stated above, only those presidents who complete their full term are eligible to serve as PP. That -in this instance- is simply not the case.

Further, the President is resigning mid-term for a reason...that would preclude him, shall we say, from re-joining the executive in a different capacity.

 

Precisely, our bylaws read as follows:

"The President, having served the full term of office, may serve as the Past President upon the election of a new or replacement President."

Regrettably, the bylaws lack direction as to the status of the PP in this unusual circumstance.

Thank you.

 

[Richard Brown]

1 hour ago, Guest said:

Thank-you for your replies. I must first beg your forgiveness for being so terribly unclear...

"Having completed his/her full term, the Pres becomes the PP and remains as such until a new Pres is elected."

As stated above, only those presidents who complete their full term are eligible to serve as PP. That -in this instance- is simply not the case.

Further, the President is resigning mid-term for a reason...that would preclude him, shall we say, from re-joining the executive in a different capacity.

 

Precisely, our bylaws read as follows:

"The President, having served the full term of office, may serve as the Past President upon the election of a new or replacement President."

Regrettably, the bylaws lack direction as to the status of the PP in this unusual circumstance.

Thank you.

I think the language you provided from your bylaws about the past president does say, in my opinion, that a president who resigns before completing his full term of office does not become a "past president" in the sense contemplated by the bylaws.  It also seems that the current past president remains past president until he is bumped by a president who serves a full term.

But, that is *MY* interpretation.  This is really a matter of interpreting your bylaws, which only your organization can do.  Your members may or may not agree with my interpretation.  It is their interpretation which counts, not mine.

Most bylaws that we see which provide for a past president or, more commonly, immediate past president, do not contain the full term language that yours do and can become the immediate past president if he resigns after only one day in office, bumping the guy who thought he was going to get to be IPP for a year instead of a day.

By the way, unless your bylaws contain a prohibition against an officer who resigns from serving as an officer again, RONR does not prohibit someone who has resigned from office from seeking office again.... any office.... at any time.... even immediately.... and even to be re-elected to the office he just resigned from.

[Guest]

Thank you, Richard.