Thank you all for the feedback. I will need to look into the reading Parliamentary Law mentioned and Doctrine of Necessity as I am unfamiliar with both.
Please accept my apologies on the length of this follow-up post. You should see my emails!
I re-read our bylaws for the umpteenth time and the only place I see to possibly work around is in the Article dealing with amendments. Here it does not specify "member in good standing". Although I realize allowing members not in good standing to vote goes against the intent.
I am unable to upload the full document because it is too large, however these are the sections related to the question (directly from the bylaws are in bold, my comments are in italics):
Article VIII
Membership
Section 1. Full membership in the Sheraden Community Council, Inc. will be open to all residents of Sheraden 18 and over, and to any person, not a resident, who is interested in furthering the work of the Council.
Section2. Membership shall be renewed annually according to the Council year.
Section 3. Membership shall not exceed the population of the Sheraden Community.
Section 4. RELATED TO THE BOUNDARIES OF SHERADEN – NOT RELEVANT TO MY QUESTION.
Section 5. Members are in good standing if they have attended six meetings during the previous Sheraden Council year until the third meeting of the current year, thereafter if they have attended three meetings within the current council year. They must also be current with their dues, as determined by Article XI. (NO DUES HAVE BEEN AUTHORIZED; BYLAWS ALSO CURRENTLY HAVE THE WRONG ARTICLE REFERENCED)
Section 6. Each member in good standing shall be entitled to one vote on each matter submitted to a vote of members. A carrying vote is one vote more than one-half of those present and eligible to vote.
Section 7. RELATED TO REMOVAL FROM A MEETING – NOT RELEVANT TO MY QUESTION.
Article XI
Election of Officers
Section 1. The Executive Committee is elected every two years.
Section 2. Nominations for officers shall be taken from membership at large at the September meeting of the membership. Nominees must be present at the meeting. The person making the nomination must be a member in good standing as of the September meeting of an election year. (See Article VII, Section 5) (CURRENT BYLAWS REFER TO THE WRONG ARTICLE/SECTION)
Section 3. Nominees must be members in good standing as of the September meeting of an election year.
Section 4. Election of officers will take place at the October meeting of the membership.
Section 5. Only members in good standing as of September of an election year will be eligible to vote.
Section 6. Voting shall take place by secret ballot or in the event of an unopposed seat, by consensus of the members determined eligible to vote at the September meeting.
Section 7. Officers may serve two two-year terms in their elected office. Upon completing the second term, the person may run for the same office after an interruption of one year.
Article XVIII
Amendments
Section 1. These Bylaws may be amended at any regular meeting by a majority of the members present, provided that motion for such changes was presented at the last regular membership meeting.
Section 2. No amendments regarding Election of Officers shall be made during the September or October meetings, during which nominations and elections are held.
Section 3. All changes in Bylaws shall be voted upon by individual sections.
Thank you again for your comments. This was a great forum to stumble upon.