By-Laws and Elections

[buckline]

Hello all, I am new to this forum.

I am a newly elected (hopefully) board member to a not for profit race organization.

At the most recent meeting, we had an election of officers. There are 9 officers on our board, serving 3 year terms, 3 terms coming due each year. The meeting went fairly normal. We had all officers and approximately 25 voting members in attendance. these 25 members make up about 90 percent of the total membership.

Now the part that I need some insight. During our nominations, a person(s) that were nominated apperently did not meet the approval of one the board members or general members. This disapproval was voiced during normal meeting however. Instead, 4 days later, the by-laws were read and it was found that in order to hold a regular meeting, notice of such meeting must be advertised in two seperate public forums. In our case it is normally the organization web site and the local paper. Two months ago a board member informed the chairman that he(member) would take care of the notification in the "paper". The board member who then became too busy handed off the job to another member. Needless to say, the notification was never published in the paper. It is this lack of publication that has inspired the few disgruntled to call the previous meeting non admissable.

My question is this possible to dismiss an entire meeting where 1) Most of the membership was present, and 2)nominations, voting, and all business was conducted with same membership present.

Our by-laws are fairly generic, but do include the usage of Roberts Rules.

Thanks in advance

[hmtcastle]

My question is this possible to dismiss an entire meeting where 1) Most of the membership was present, and 2)nominations, voting, and all business was conducted with same membership present.

Yes, it's possible.

For example, a special meeting could be out of order (and all business conducted therein null and void) if special meetings are not authorized by your bylaws or the rules for calling a special meeting (i.e. notification) were not followed.

But elections usually take place at a regular (not special) meeting (and usually at the annual meeting). And regular meetings don't require the same notification as special meetings . . . BUT . . . your rules apparently do require some notification for regular meetings and if those rules weren't followed then the meeting was improperly held.

[buckline]

One edit to the above scenario......

At the a pre meeting "workshop" where all previous board members and the chairman were present, the subject of the missing notification was brought to their attention. The rsponse by the board was "It shouldn't be a problem".

Just thought I should add that the entire board was made aware before the "General Membership" meeting and decided to continue on regardless.

[George Mervosh]

One edit to the above scenario......

At the a pre meeting "workshop" where all previous board members and the chairman were present, the subject of the missing notification was brought to their attention. The rsponse by the board was "It shouldn't be a problem".

Just thought I should add that the entire board was made aware before the "General Membership" meeting and decided to continue on regardless.

That doesn't affect the answer to the question, though it might be a reason for discipline.