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Illegal election


Guest Layne

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Several members of the board called for elections in August of this year. No notice was given, even though the elections have always been in September, and so is written in the by laws. I believe the election was moved up a month because of who was, and who was not at the meeting that night, thus affecting the elections., what can be done to throw out this illegal election?

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1 hour ago, Guest Layne said:

Several members of the board called for elections in August of this year. No notice was given, even though the elections have always been in September, and so is written in the by laws. I believe the election was moved up a month because of who was, and who was not at the meeting that night, thus affecting the elections., what can be done to throw out this illegal election?

What exactly do the bylaws say regarding when the elections are held and/or how they are scheduled?

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From the By-laws....

"The officers shall be elected annually by the board of directors on the third monday of September and shall take office the 1st of october."

This year, at the August meeting, they announced that the elections were being held that night, and opened the floor for nominations.

I cant see how that is legal at all.

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Based on the quote from your bylaws, it's not in order at all. Beyond that major transgression, elections always require prior notice (unless the date is established in the bylaws, as your is) so simply announcing "we're going to have the election tonight" will always be out of order. While an election can be postponed to an adjourned meeting, a special meeting or the next regular meeting (if within a quarterly time interval), I know of no legitimate means of moving an election to an earlier meeting than the one stipulated by rule.

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At the next meeting you can raise a point of order, that the action taken is null and void since it violates the rule in the bylaws and may not be suspended.  RONR (11th ed.), p. 251 a) and p. 263.  

If the point is not well taken (it should be) you can appeal but you'll need a majority to overturn the chair's ruling.

If all else fails the membership can institute disciplinary proceedings against the board members who took this action (assuming the membership is actually going to have a meeting or meetings coming up to do this).  Then of course, there's always the potential to pursue a legal remedy, but we can't discuss those things here.

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