As the membership vice president for my organization (and de facto parliamentarian), I've been doing some proactive research on transitions among our various membership categories. In two such cases (non-member to probationary member and probationary member to full member), certain membership statuses are conferred by participation in a ceremony to which an individual must be invited by the organization. In other words, the process is as follows:
At a special meeting, invitations to the membership ceremony are extended to eligible individuals by the appropriate vote (majority for probationary, 2/3 for full);
Invitations are hand-delivered to the individuals;
Invitees transmit their acceptance of the invitation to the appropriate officer;
Invitees participate in the ceremony; and
The ceremony and its participants are registered with our governing organization.
It is only after Step 4 that the actual membership transition occurs (some in the org even argue only after Step 5 is the transition valid).
At what point could such an invitation be rescinded, assuming that the motion to rescind takes place at a validly-called special meeting with a quorum present? I'm torn between saying that the rescission must place between 1 and 2 (as it was a motion to invite, and once the invitation has been received, the motion has been carried out), and between 3 and 4 (the organization ought to retain the right to annul a previous action before the actual effect of that action [the membership transition] has taken place).
Some additional info:
The only possibly applicable passage I could find was RONR (11th ed.) pg. 308, lines 20-30:
The question is actually moot in the case of probationary members becoming full members, as the individual's probationary membership could be revoked pursuant to our bylaws, thus making that individual ineligible to participate in the ceremony. However, no such provision exists to revoke a non-member's "membership" as they're, well, non-members.
Steps 2 and 3 are based on custom whereas 1, 4, and 5 are required by our bylaws or our governing organization's bylaws. As such, additional concerns could be raised if the invitations were instead extended to the invitees by mail, email, etc.
