I have a question about this topic, although the comments so far are enlightening - thanks! I am a member of a board of an international organisation that has a simple article in its Standing Rules that the Standing Rules can be 'amended by a majority vote of the board'.
Sometime, the board meets physically, and at other times a vote is sent out electronically. Clearly, we need to make our rule more explicit in terms of e-mail voting for SR amendments, but for now, assuming we allow e-mail voting, what happens if only some of the worldwide board members respond to a request to vote by email and the 'Yes' votes do not constitude a majority of the board? The wording that is confusing me here is '...or a majority or two-thirds of the entire membership'. In the case in which I am involved, the board constitudes only about 4% of the entire membership of the worldwide organisation. Should I, therefore,
(1) take 'entire membership' in this case to mean 'entire membership of the board', so that an abstention has the same effect as a 'No' vote, or
or:
(2) assume that we need a majority or two-thirds of the votes actually cast by the board members to pass the vote?
Any help would be appreciated!
Martin George, Australia
