Bylaws suspended to hold elections in November

[Guest Guest_Ivan]

Hello,

My organziation's bylaws states that elections is to be held in January, but a member moved to suspended the bylaws on November 30th and asked that the elections to be held that night.The motion pssed, and the election was held. Four new officers was elected, but was not sworn into office.

Our bylaws does make provisions for those events:

1) Article V Section 1- All newly elected officers, and appointd officers shall be sworn into office immediately by the president after their election or appointmet and shall take office at the irst day of the new calendar year.

2) Article VI Section 9- Starting in November, an nominating committee will be formed to elicit nominations for the upcoming election in January.

3) Article VII Section 2- The bylaws may be suspended only with 2/3 vote of members in good standing and present in the meeting.

4) Article IX Section 1- The Robert's Rule of Order shall be the parliamentary authority of this organization as long as it does not come into conflict with the organizaton's bylaws.

I feel that what the members did is wrong, but as long as it follows the bylaws of the organization, I think the President had no choice but to abide by the wishes of the members. A few of the members disagree and is insisting that hte President does not call a special meeting for the purpse of adminstering the Oath of Office, as demanded by the bylaws so the new officers can assume office in January.

Thoughts?

[Guest Edgar]

Thoughts?

Bylaws can only be properly interpreted by reading them in their entirety, something that's beyond the scope of this forum.

[Chris Harrison]

Thoughts?

Article V Section 1- All newly elected officers, and appointd officers shall be sworn into office immediately by the president after their election or appointmet and shall take office at the irst day of the new calendar year.

seems to be in conflict with

Article VI Section 9- Starting in November, an nominating committee will be formed to elicit nominations for the upcoming election in January.

unless you hold the election meeting on January 1.

That being said, the section regarding when elections are to be held generally cannot be suspended because it is codified in the bylaws plus the rights of absentees would be violated because they expect the elections to be held when they are supposed to be held and if they knew that the elections were being held now they might have shown up to participate but were never given the chance (RONR p. 251 [a,e], p. 263 ll. 1-11 and ll. 29-5 [on p. 264]). However, since your bylaws provide for their own suspension all bets are off.

[Guest Guest_Ivan]

I forgot to add that we have a constitution and a bylaws. I forgot to add which article is from: Revised information below-

1) Article V Section 1- All newly elected officers, and appointd officers shall be sworn into office immediately by the president after their election or appointmet and shall take office at the irst day of the new calendar year. (Constitution)

2) Article VI Section 9- Starting in November, an nominating committee will be formed to elicit nominations for the upcoming election in January. (Bylaws)

3) Article VII Section 2- The bylaws may be suspended only with 2/3 vote of members in good standing and present in the meeting.(Constitution)

4) Article IX Section 1- The Robert's Rule of Order shall be the parliamentary authority of this organization as long as it does not come into conflict with the organizaton's bylaws.(Constitution)

[George Mervosh]

As Edgar points out, we can't interpret bylaws here. RONR offers helpful principles of interpretation if your group needs them (RONR, p. 588ff). As Chris pointed out, if the rules in RONR control the matter, the suspension of the rules was improper and a continuing breach of the rules exists, and a point of order can be made at any time**.

**added in the point of order part.