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BY Laws Question


Guest Angie R

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If a by law states the following under and Article Section 1  Officers and identifies the Officers as President, President-Elect, Secretary, Immediate Past President and Treasurer and then under the same article Section 2 states " Except when serving to complete an unexpired term, all Officers except the Treasurer shall serve a one year term, the Treasurer term is 2 years.  Can a motion be brought forward to the board of directors to have the President, President-Elect and Secretary serve two year without amendment of the by laws? And if motion was brought forward and approved is it a valid vote?

What is the correction if the vote is not valid/

Can it be explained that the "intention of the bylaws were to say that Officers like directors could serve 2 years" even though there is an separate article that covers directors and officers?

 

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44 minutes ago, Guest Angie R said:

If a by law states the following under and Article Section 1  Officers and identifies the Officers as President, President-Elect, Secretary, Immediate Past President and Treasurer and then under the same article Section 2 states " Except when serving to complete an unexpired term, all Officers except the Treasurer shall serve a one year term, the Treasurer term is 2 years.  Can a motion be brought forward to the board of directors to have the President, President-Elect and Secretary serve two year without amendment of the by laws? And if motion was brought forward and approved is it a valid vote?

What is the correction if the vote is not valid/

Can it be explained that the "intention of the bylaws were to say that Officers like directors could serve 2 years" even though there is an separate article that covers directors and officers?

The bylaws could be amended only by following the procedures described in the bylaws for their amendment. A motion that conflicts with the bylaws is null and void. In this case, a point of order could be raised at the next meeting.

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7 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

So  based on how the section 2 is written a vote to keep the officers in place for a second year was taken it had no standing is a null vote. Correct

This would seem to be the case, yes.

By the way, my guess is that your bylaws do prescribe that the President-Elect automatically becomes President, but I sincerely doubt that they prescribe any other automatic succession. Are you sure that they do?

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13 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

If a by law states the following under and Article Section 1  Officers and identifies the Officers as President, President-Elect, Secretary, Immediate Past President and Treasurer and then under the same article Section 2 states " Except when serving to complete an unexpired term, all Officers except the Treasurer shall serve a one year term, the Treasurer term is 2 years.  Can a motion be brought forward to the board of directors to have the President, President-Elect and Secretary serve two year without amendment of the by laws? And if motion was brought forward and approved is it a valid vote?

No to both questions.

13 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

What is the correction if the vote is not valid/

A member should raise a Point of Order that the motion is null and void because it conflicts with the bylaws. If the chair rules the point not well taken, the member should appeal from the ruling of the chair. Ultimately, the assembly shall decide, by majority vote.

13 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

Can it be explained that the "intention of the bylaws were to say that Officers like directors could serve 2 years" even though there is an separate article that covers directors and officers?

Based on what is posted so far, I do not find this explanation persuasive. The bylaws explicitly state "Except when serving to complete an unexpired term, all Officers except the Treasurer shall serve a one year term."

13 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

Because they would be moving up the chairs. Sec to Pre-Elect, Pres Elect to Pres.  The intention of the vote was to have each officer stay in place for another year and not move forward.

I would advise reading this section of your bylaws again. It is quite standard for the President-Elect to automatically become President upon completion of his term, but for the Secretary to become President-Elect upon the completion of his term would be highly unusual.

12 hours ago, Guest Angie R said:

So  based on how the section 2 is written a vote to keep the officers in place for a second year was taken it had no standing is a null vote. Correct

Yes. If the society wishes to change the term of office for their officers to two years, the bylaws will have to be amended.

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5 hours ago, g40 said:

It also seems to me you have a potential problem with a one year term for Immediate Past President. If the President resigns one day into his/her term, then he/she becomes the Immediate Past President. The previous Immediate Past President served in that office for one day.

Hard to say without reading the bylaws. I was part of an organization which for many years had a Past President role that was only filled by the expiry of the President's term, and it was quite clear on that point.

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