Payment of Dues By Board Members

[Guest Frank Lukes]

My question is basically in three parts, all relating to the payment of dues. First, if there are members of the board who are consistantly late at meeting a defined deadline for the payment of their membership dues, are they (1) permitted to vote on any topic before the board; (2) are they permitted to attend the Executive Session as a board member although they are in fact non board members according to the Bylaws which clearly states that all members must be currant and up to date on dues; and (3) if having not paid their dues and yet have voted on several isses before the board, especially the annual budget, does this negate the vote? Thanks for any help you can give.

[jstackpo]

RONR says that being derelict in dues payments, or in arrears, or late, or whatever, does NOT deprive one of any membership rights. P. 393, 394

Evidently you have special rules of your own association, so it will be up to your association to figure out what they mean and how to apply them in particular situations.

[Gary Novosielski]

My question is basically in three parts, all relating to the payment of dues. First, if there are members of the board who are consistantly late at meeting a defined deadline for the payment of their membership dues, are they (1) permitted to vote on any topic before the board; (2) are they permitted to attend the Executive Session as a board member although they are in fact non board members according to the Bylaws which clearly states that all members must be currant and up to date on dues; and (3) if having not paid their dues and yet have voted on several isses before the board, especially the annual budget, does this negate the vote? Thanks for any help you can give.

You seem to be confusing board membership with membership in the society itself. You say there's a rule in the bylaws that "cearly states" members must be current. But it's not clear from what you quoted. Does it say board members, or members?

If they apply to membership in the society, as such a provision usually would, does it provide any consequences for lack of payment? I presume i does not, or you would not be asking questions here if the answers were spelled out in your bylaws. But in RONR there are no consequences spelled out, so if they don't exist in your bylaws, they don't exist.

And so far I haven't (and it looks like you haven't) discovered any rule that would interfere with their rights with respect to serving on the bvoard. Ever if they were removed as members of the society, do your bylaws have an explicit requirement for membership as a qualification for serving on the board? If not, then the requirement does not exist, and loss of membership would not automatically remove them from the board.

[hmtcastle]

(3) if having not paid their dues and yet have voted on several isses before the board, especially the annual budget, does this negate the vote?

You'd need clear and convincing proof that an illegal vote(s) could have affected the outcome in order to raise a point of order at this time. It would have been better (and easier) to have raised a point of order at the time the illegal voter was voting (though, as others have suggested, it's not at all clear that these board members had lost the fundamental right to vote simply because they were "in arrears" in the payment of dues).