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Adding new Standing Committee to Bylaws


Guest Rita

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We are considering to add a new standing committee to our bylaws. This committee would be appointed by the President each new year following elections of officers as our other standing committees that are in the bylaws.

Is the correct procedure to first present the new standing committee as a motion to add to the bylaws to allow the members discussion? Would this be done by the President or the Bylaws committee?

Then the Bylaws committee would present the updated wording of the bylaws and we would follow the process that is in our bylaws to notify all of change. Then have the vote to amend our bylaws.  They would also then complete final copies of the newly update bylaws.

What are the appropriate steps to complete this?

Thank you

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Sounds like what you are doing will work.  Just be sure to follow the rules in the bylaws for amending the bylaws which most likely include advance notice of the proposed amendment sent around prior to the action of your second paragraph.

You probably don't need what reads a little like a two step process, unless your bylaws call for the "pre-discussion" (of your second paragraph) before the final discussion and vote (third paragraph) on the bylaw amendment.

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The procedure for amending your bylaws is almost certainly contained in the bylaws themselves.  Whatever optional steps you might consider, the rules in the bylaws concerning their own amendment must be complied with.

Is the Bylaws Committee a standing committee, reporting to the membership?  If so, the assembly might  instruct the committee to draft an appropriate bylaws amendment and report back with its recommendation. Or, the motion itself could be made in the assembly and referred to the bylaws committee, or some other method may be used, depending on what your rules are.  It depends to some extent on what the duties of the committee are.  In some organizations, it is not possible to amend the bylaws without input from the bylaws committee; in others, it is; many organizations have no bylaws committee.

Within the confines of the rules in your bylaws, you are free to do what seems to make the most sense to a majority of members.

 

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I don't think the procedure you seem to be suggesting, of first presenting a motion "to add a new standing committee to the bylaws", and then having the bylaws committee present the actual wording of the proposed amendment to start your defined amendment process, is correct. The exact wording to be added to the bylaws to establish this new standing committee should be decided on first, perhaps by the bylaws committee, so that this wording of the proposed amendment, exactly as it will appear in the bylaws, is what is introduced to the membership in accord with your amendment procedure. To my mind, a motion stating only "to add a new standing committee to the bylaws" would be out of order.

On the other hand, if what you're asking about is an initial motion from the membership to the bylaws committee to draft an amendment creating a new standing committee, that is perfectly proper.

 

 

 

 

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