DonB

Thanks everyone for your input. I just left a meeting in which we required the secretary to replay the tape of the annual meeting that was held in the beginning of August After listening to the tape is was determined there was no vote whatsoever taken to accept the new bylaws in any way. There was a majority of the membership present. I suppose the chair at the time forgot that he did not call for a vote. Only a discussion had taken place. He has since resigned. Since no vote was taken, we declared the previous bylaws still valid and closed the matter. The proposed bylaws were riddled with so many errors anyway we chose not to re-submit then to the membership. At our next annual meeting we will review changes to our bylaws and add a bylaws admendment procedure. Sorry for misleading you that a vote had been taken place even though I thought it was an improper vote. I had been misinformed, this is why we required the secretary to replay the tape. This was the first time that I had to deal with parliamentary procedures. All of your comments were extremely helpful in understanding what was the required path for resolving this issue. Thanks again DonB

The exact wording of the only rule about changes to the bylaws is as follows: "All suggested changes to the mmc bylaws or Rule and Regulations will be presented to any board member in writing and they will present it to the President and it will be discussed with the board and then brought to the club at the annual meeting in august." This rule was adopted at the annual meeting at the beginning if this month Aug 2017. This rule was adopted first and then a discussion on the proposed new rules began. Prior to that there was NO rule whatsoever regarding the bylaw amendment process. We added this rule this year because we had a single member try to get a whole bunch of changes at a regular monthly meeting that has very low attendence. At that meeting, a different member made a motion to table the changes to the annual meeting. The annual meeting is a requirement for members to attend. We still do not get everyone to attend but we have much better club representation.

Also to those who indicated that because it appears that the club did approve the vote, even tho no motion or second were made. Can you point me to rules that support this position. It was my undstanding that 2/3 vote is needed to change bylaws. It is Also my understanding that the General Consent is really only met for small items. Thanks Don

I do have an additional problem. If it turns out that I have to apply the new rules, It appears that the wording in some the new bylaw rules are incorrect. These rules state we are bowling league, but in reality we are a traveling tournament club. It really is just a matter of words. Can I simply change the wording.

There are no rules in the old or new bylaws requiring notice. So based on this forums comments, no notice is required. I believe everyone new that the discusion and improper vote was about changing the bylaws. Tomorrow I will listen to the tape of the meeting to makes sure what I have said on this forum is correct.

There was no advance notice of the changes until he passed out the proposed new rules package for discussion.

After a discussion on a package of changes to the bylaws during the annual meeting of a small club, the club president simply asked for those in favor and then if there was any objections then closed the meetng. No one spoke up and indictated that they had a problem with the new rules. Everyone assumed the new rules packaged passed. He did not ask for any motion or seconds to approve the changes to the bylaws. The club did pass a rule stating that changes could only be made to the bylaws during the annual meeting. A couple of days after the meeting, the secretary (who is against the changes), informed us that the vote was invalid because no motions were made. What do I do? Is the vote really null and void? Do I a have to call for a re-vote? Or because we passed a rule allowing for changes only at annual meetng, do I have to wait until the next year's annual meeting to consider the changes?