Definition of a month

[Chip]

If a Bylaw or Rule specifies that a deadline for a certain action or notification is "one month" or "two months" (or more) in advance, should that be interpreted on the same date of the month two months prior (or, if that date does not exist, the last date of the month two months prior)?

For example, "two months prior to June 15" would mean April 15, and "three months prior to May 31" would mean February 28 or 29. Would that be considered the correct interpretation?

I ask because I have heard that sometimes a "month" can refer to "30 days" or even "four weeks" (in the case of a lunar month), and I don't remember seeing anything in RONR regarding that specific information.

[Gary Novosielski]

The only comparable rules in RONR concern what is termed a "quarterly interval".

As used in RONR a quarterly interval from today ends at the end of the third month following the current month.

So, as of today, February 14, anything from now through the last day of May would be considered "within a quarterly interval".

It will be up to your organization to interpret your own bylaws, and to determine how to calculate months.  I suppose a case could be made that by analogy with "quarterly", a "month's interval" from today might be considered to be the end of March, or it could be March 13th or 14th.  If you think your rules are too ambiguous, figure out better language and seek to amend them to eliminate the ambiguity.