Suspension of members during a regular meeting.

[jcapps]

Can a Vice President of company suspend a member during a meeting if the company bylaws state any officer can suspend any member for 30 day or the next meeting?  Or does he need to wait till the meeting is over?

Any thoughts?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Ultimately it is up to your organization to interpret your rules.

[Transpower]

Based on what jcapps said, I'd say that the officer can suspend a member during the meeting.  However, it would be helpful to have the actual text of the bylaws.

[jcapps]

Here is the wording.  

 

Section 1 – Any Officer of this company may suspend a member for 30 days or until the next meeting, which ever occurs first. A full report must be presented to the floor at the next regular meeting following the incident.

[Alexis Hunt]

That seems quite explicit.

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, jcapps said:

Section 1 – Any Officer of this company may suspend a member for 30 days or until the next meeting, which ever occurs first. A full report must be presented to the floor at the next regular meeting following the incident.

It is ultimately up to the organization to interpret its own bylaws, and such an interpretation must be based on a reading of the bylaws in their entirety. There may be other provisions which are relevant to this question. With that said, nothing in the quoted language appears to include any limitations on when an officer may exercise this power.

I would also say that, whether or not this power may be exercised during a meeting, this provision seems extremely ill-advised and the society should strongly consider amending it or getting rid of it.

[jcapps]

I guess that was my question is whether that power may be exercised during a meeting.

[Josh Martin]

14 minutes ago, jcapps said:

I guess that was my question is whether that power may be exercised during a meeting.

Yes, and as noted, this is ultimately up to your organization to determine.