Schedule of membership dues

[Guest LostOne]

Could someone help me please to understand this line in and organization's bylaws which I am a member.

"A schedule of annual membership dues shall be established by the Board of Directors"

I interpret this to mean, all membership are to be annual (12 month membership). What I don't understand is the wording "A schedule" Does this mean the board sets a date, and on that date membership dues are to be paid?

What if I joined the organization 4 months before the "Scheduled" date, and at the time I joined the organization, I paid for what I thought "based on the bylaws" was a 12 month membership. (annual)

Based on the wording in the bylaws did I pay for a 4 month membership? and must pay for a 12 month membership on the scheduled date? Is there anything in Robert's Rules that address something like this? I was told this organization follows their bylaws and Robert's Rules?

Bylaws:

Dues

A schedule of annual membership dues shall be established by the Board of Directors. Dues shall be assessed at each Annual Meeting prior to the election of Directors and shall extend to the subsequent Annual Meeting. Upon payment of dues, each Member shall be issued a Corporation Membership Card. Any changes in the dues schedule shall be proposed at the Annual Meeting and shall be subject to voting approval by the Members; any such voting with respect to dues schedule changes shall occur prior to dues assessment.

[hmtcastle]

I interpret this to mean, all membership are to be annual (12 month membership). What I don't understand is the wording "A schedule" Does this mean the board sets a date, and on that date membership dues are to be paid?

We can't properly interpret your bylaws but I'd say that the excerpt you quoted means that the board determines the answers to your questions about dues. In other words, what counts as a full year, what happens if you join in the middle of the year, etc. Although the word "schedule" may suggest only a time-frame, it can also include amounts.

Some organizations, for example, will credit you for 2012 if you join and pay your annual dues in October, November, or December of 2011. Some will pro-rate the dues on a monthly basis. Some won't. Your bylaws appear to give your board the authority to sort this out.

[jstackpo]

Around here we usually leave interpretation of bylaws up to the organization that wrote and uses the bylaws - that is the only definitive one possible.

However, since your bylaw uses a tricky English word - "schedule" - we can do some interpretation for you.

Schedule commonly has (at least) two, sometimes combined, meanings: one is like a time table - when something is to be done. The other meaning is simply a list.

Since your bylaws already have a timetable for when dues are to be paid, I'll go for the "list" meaning. I'll guess that you have more than one class of membership and different classes pay different dues amounts. The list of what class pays how much is the "schedule of dues".

As for whether your "early" payment of dues, not at the annual meeting, counts for four, twelve, or sixteen months IS a matter of interpretation. Ask the person who took your check and then ask the members at large at the next meeting.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Could someone help me please to understand this line in and organization's bylaws which I am a member.

"A schedule of annual membership dues shall be established by the Board of Directors"

I interpret this to mean,

all membership are to be annual (12 month membership).

I disagree.

Your logic does not hold.

A rule, in the form,

"A schedule of annual X shall be established,"

does not logically imply

"All X are annual."

Analogy:

"A sleeping schedule for nocturnal animals shall be established by the Chief Zoo Keeper,"

does not imply that

all animals, therefore are nocturnal.

(It implies that the Chief Zoo Keeper is forbidden from scheduling the sleeping schedule of the non-nocturnal animals (viz., the diurnal animals).

Same analogy:

"A schedule of whippings and beatings of Confederate prisoners shall be established by President Lincoln,"

does not imply

"That all prisoners are therefore Confederate prisoners."

(It implies that prisoners who are Union AWOLs and Union criminals are excluded from President Lincoln's scheduling authority. They are still prisoners, but not Confederate prisoners. Call them non-Confederate prisoners.)

Speaking logically:

The adjective ("annual") does not suddenly become globally applicable to all dues, just because a subset of dues (the annual ones) are scheduled by your board.

Logically, you must infer:

The non-annual dues remain un-scheduled. -- i.e., the board is disallowed from touching dues which do not fall under the "annual" umbrella.

Q. Does this mean the board sets a date, and on that date membership dues are to be paid?

Unclear.

There are more than one scheduling possible, e.g.:

(a.) pro-rated dues.

(b.) deadline which causes a lapse.

(c.) the sending of renewal notices.

Which one, #a or #b or #c, does your rule imply?

I don't know.

All of them? One of the them?

Probably all of them, since they are all, in some fashion, a form of "scheduling".

And your rule draws no line between kinds of scheduling. -- Only that the dues being affected are annual. -- The non-annual dues remain as is.

Bylaws:

Dues

A schedule of annual membership dues shall be established by the Board of Directors. Dues shall be assessed at each Annual Meeting prior to the election of Directors and shall extend to the subsequent Annual Meeting. Upon payment of dues, each Member shall be issued a Corporation Membership Card. Any changes in the dues schedule shall be proposed at the Annual Meeting and shall be subject to voting approval by the Members; any such voting with respect to dues schedule changes shall occur prior to dues assessment.

[Rev Ed]

This is really up to the organization to decide. The Board can almost certainly decide how to apply the dues and the amount. If the membership does not like this, then the members can change the By-laws. However, to a certain extent the Board needs some discretion as the Board has to operate the organization between general membership meetings and unless the general membership sets the Budget and/or meets regularly then the Board will likely have most of the responsibility to run the organization. Thus, the Board should be allowed to make sure the organization has the income it requires to operate effectively.