Jennifer M

Our bylaws specifically state that a ballot vote is not necessary when there is only one candidate for an office. I see you caught that in a follow up post. Thank you all for the replies.

Thank you, this answers my question.

Nominations for officers were taken at our September meeting. There was only one nominee per office. Our bylaws do not require a ballot vote when a nominee is running unopposed. The election takes place in October. There is no mention in the bylaws about additional nominations in October. Is there a need to call for objections, or can each candidate simply be declared by acclamation? I think the time for objection would have been during the nominations in September, but I am not sure of the proper procedure here. Thank you.

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.

I am an officer in a small community organization. In February 2020, I formed a committee to review and amend our bylaws (they are far too cumbersome for an organization of our size). However, when Covid hit, everything was put on hold. One of the issues we had planned to address was the meeting attendance requirement in order to be considered a member in good standing. We are now faced with a dilemma regarding this requirement, and I hope someone in this group might have some suggestions. Our current officers were elected and the board appointed in October 2019. The next election is scheduled for October 2021. Our bylaws state that the term for office is 2 years and officers may not serve more than two consecutive terms. The major component for being eligible to serve as an officer and to vote as a member at large, is based on attendance at meetings. The bylaws state that to be considered a member in good standing an individual must have attended six meetings in the prior Council year and three meetings in the current Council year. We held our last regular meeting in February of 2020. As I understand the bylaws, this means we have no one eligible to run for office or to vote. Any ideas on how to address this? Thank you