Email resolutions on fundraising

[Attajb]

 

We have 4 months in between meetings, and previously as policy when we have a fundraising issue come up we have sent around an email to all board members for consent to do the fundraising  if it falls between meetings or the issue comes up and has to be done immediately we now have a new member Who is not happy with these policies and procedures and would like to "Roberts rules as saying electronic voting is illegal"this is the same board member who did a fundraising without any consent from the board

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[Hieu H. Huynh]

Voting by email is prohibited unless authorized in the bylaws.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

I hope it's not illegal or you'd all be hauled off to jail. 

RONR doesn't control communication outside a meeting, but anything you agree to by email must be ratified at a later meeting to become an official act of the board. In the meanwhile, members are acting on their own initiative and if things go wrong, they may be held personally responsible.

[Attajb]

Under this passage, and since this has been our practice and part of the procedures we have worked with due to the length of time between meetings and the fact that we do not have anything against this in our Bylaws wouldn't it take a majority vote to change this.

 

 

[Dutchman]

19 minutes ago, Guest Who's Coming to Dinner said:

I hope it's not illegal or you'd all be hauled off to jail. 

RONR doesn't control communication outside a meeting, but anything you agree to by email must be ratified at a later meeting to become an official act of the board. In the meanwhile, members are acting on their own initiative and if things go wrong, they may be held personally responsible.

Agreed! The email goes beyond general communication and asks for an up or down vote on actions that require an expenditure. This is being done outside of a meeting and our bylaws do not allow for email voting.

[Attajb]

1 minute ago, Attajb said:

 

The board has no funds and the money spent is put in as a donation by board 

members so it is not asking for the Board to expend funds

[Joshua Katz]

10 minutes ago, Attajb said:

Under this passage, and since this has been our practice and part of the procedures we have worked with due to the length of time between meetings and the fact that we do not have anything against this in our Bylaws wouldn't it take a majority vote to change this.

 

 

No, violating rules for any length of time does not change the fact that it is a violation of the rules, and that the custom falls on raising a point of order.  It does not take a majority vote to follow the rules.

[Gary Novosielski]

47 minutes ago, Attajb said:

Under this passage, and since this has been our practice and part of the procedures we have worked with due to the length of time between meetings and the fact that we do not have anything against this in our Bylaws wouldn't it take a majority vote to change this.

No.  The fact that you've been doing something wrong for years does not make it right.  The fact that you have nothing in your bylaws about it means that the rules in RONR apply, and RONR prohibits it.

RONR prohibits e-mail meetings because they do not meet the requirements for a deliberative assembly, and the rules in RONR would be almost impossible to apply successfully.  If you want to authorized them, you must explicitly do so in your bylaws, and probably pass special rules of order that apply to e-mail meetings.  How, for example, does one request recognition?  How do you hold a secret ballot?  How can the chair call someone to order?

Since a bylaws change would be necessary, whatever the vote and other requirements you have for changing your bylaws would then be the requirements for adding e-mail meetings.  A majority vote certainly would not be enough.

[Gary c Tesser]

On 2/15/2017 at 9:56 PM, Attajb said:

The board has no funds and the money spent is put in as a donation by board 

members so it is not asking for the Board to expend funds

So the board members are just spending their own personally donated money.

Huh.

On 2/15/2017 at 9:08 PM, Attajb said:

we have sent around an email to all board members for consent to do the fundraising

-- Which means,  your board members write to each other and say, ~"Heh, let's all chip in for this."~

Huh.

And Dinner Guest [brilliant, RB, BTW] points out:

On 2/15/2017 at 9:32 PM, Guest Who's Coming to Dinner said:

but anything you agree to by email must be ratified at a later meeting to become an official act of the board. In the meanwhile, members are acting on their own initiative and if things go wrong, they may be held personally responsible.

So is it that no one is refusing the board members' donations, but some assert that the solicitation, by e-mail, as purported official communication of the organization, is invalid?

Huh.

And we want to know what to make of this, as far as RONR is concerned?

Huh.