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Stopping a vote


Guest Inquiring minds

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Guest Inquiring minds

We started a vote to remove a board member by email to 10 people.  Only a handful of people voted. The board member resigned before the vote was completed.  We then motioned to end the first vote be a certain date to end the first voting period and that vote passed. The question is: what happens to the vote if no one else votes?   How do we stop it now that she has resigned. 

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Well, there's a footnote in RONR that says, in essence, that those who decide to venture into email voting are on their own, and should construct rules for themselves, so a lot will depend on your rules for conducting email voting.  It would seem that your ongoing email vote is moot, but that's not a big deal, really.  As for your questions, what do your rules say about email voting?  If they say nothing about needing a certain number of votes (apparently they're silent on when a vote ends if not everyone votes?), then a motion will carry, or not, depending on whether there are more votes for than against, or not, at least for an original main motion.  It seems you've already figured out one way to stop it - put an end date on it.  By the way, it would be a really good idea, if you're going to persist in this email voting thing, to have a time limit in your rules, rather than passing it on the fly.  What if someone doesn't vote on the original motion, or on the motion to limit the time to vote?

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It all depends on the specific wording in the By-laws allowing for e-mail voting.  There could be a requirement that a certain number of members have to vote, or they only have a certain number of days to respond.  Of course, there is an argument that the resignation should not be acted on (either for or against) until after a decision on the original motion is dealt with.  The resignation, if accepted prior to the other vote being finalized, would make the vote unnecessary.  But this is all up to the organization to decide, not for anyone on this forum.

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Guest Inquiring minds

We are a parent organization and somewhat informal.  Our bylaws do not cover email voting but we voted by email to allow an email vote (the majority agreed).  Our bylaws also do not identify how a quorum is made or how many make up a quorum.  Would we count only those that actually agreed to the email vote as the quorum or do we still count everyone on the email list?  

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2 minutes ago, Guest Inquiring minds said:

We are a parent organization and somewhat informal.  Our bylaws do not cover email voting but we voted by email to allow an email vote (the majority agreed).  Our bylaws also do not identify how a quorum is made or how many make up a quorum.  Would we count only those that actually agreed to the email vote as the quorum or do we still count everyone on the email list?  

If your bylaws do not provide for email voting, then you can't do it. Besides, you didn't even have an email vote to authorize the email vote by which you authorized email voting. :-)

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7 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

Pardon me for mentioning this, but a resignation must be accepted before it becomes final. A person submitting their resignation brings a halt to absolutely nothing. An assembly is the final judge in all such matters.

Yes, although it seems unlikely that a group in the process of removing someone would decide not to accept their resignation.

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11 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

Pardon me for mentioning this, but a resignation must be accepted before it becomes final. A person submitting their resignation brings a halt to absolutely nothing. An assembly is the final judge in all such matters.

 

4 hours ago, Godelfan said:

Yes, although it seems unlikely that a group in the process of removing someone would decide not to accept their resignation.

Only the question of "You don't fire me, I quit" vs. "No, we're darn well firing you."

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Indeed, in some cases it might not make any difference. However, in some other cases there may be a significant difference between resigning from an organization or being kicked out. The Congress of the United States is such an example. Some Congress members have been caught defrauding the United States Treasury or committing criminal or ethical offenses. Impeachment proceedings were started against them and they submitted their resignations. Their resignations were accepted and they walked away. In two cases I am aware of two ex-members of Congress actually went to jail. However, because they resigned, they kept their pension benefits as ex-members of Congress, in some cases to the tune of $200,000 a year, otherwise if they had been impeached they would have had nothing. Consequently, criminals have been allowed to retire and make millions of dollars at your expense.
 

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On 2/27/2017 at 9:17 AM, Transpower said:

The board member resigned, so the vote is now moot anyway.

No it is not.  The resignation could be refused outright, or a motion could be made and passed to "Postpone the resignation until the next regular meeting" in order to allow a decision on the disciplinary action.  Of course, if two different groups are involved (i.e. 'if' the Board can accept resignations vs. the general membership dealing with the disciplinary actions) then it might complicate things.

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On 2/25/2017 at 9:57 PM, Guest Inquiring minds said:

We started a vote to remove a board member by email to 10 people.  Only a handful of people voted. The board member resigned before the vote was completed.  We then motioned to end the first vote be a certain date to end the first voting period and that vote passed. The question is: what happens to the vote if no one else votes?   How do we stop it now that she has resigned. 

 

On 2/27/2017 at 8:17 AM, Transpower said:

The board member resigned, so the vote is now moot anyway.

 

18 minutes ago, Rev Ed said:

No it is not.  The resignation could be refused outright, or a motion could be made and passed to "Postpone the resignation until the next regular meeting" in order to allow a decision on the disciplinary action.  . . . .  (remainder of post omitted)

I agree with Rev Ed.  A society does not have to accept a resignation.  If the member who is attempting to resign is the subject of disciplinary proceedings, the society may refuse to accept the resignation and instead proceed with expulsion or other discipline.

Usually organizations prefer to accept a resignation rather than go through disciplinary proceedings, but unless the bylaws provide otherwise, an organization may refuse to accept a resignation and proceed with discipline.

Edited to add:  RONR is quite clear on this point on page 656:  "If a member or officer is guilty of a serious offense and knows that other members are in possession of the facts, he may wish to submit his resignation. When the good of the society appears to demand the departure of an offender, it is usually best for all concerned to offer him the opportunity to resign quietly before charges are preferred. The society has no obligation to suggest or accept such a resignation at any stage of the case, however, even if it is submitted on the offender's own initiative." (Emphasis added).

Edited by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph
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