Motion to change Constitution by laws, can you have debait

[Guest Jim KinES]

Our Constitution By laws have prvisions to make amendement and changes.

( After being submitted proposed amendments shall be processed as follows:

1. The Secretary shall read the proposed amendment to the Board of governors meeting following receipt.

2. Following the reading to the Board all proposed amendments or new by-laws shall be reviewed by the Board of Governors. Who shall rule on their merit and feasibility and then will be submitted to the membership with recommendations, if any.

3. Following the action taken by the Board of Governor the Secretary shall read the proposed amendments to the membership at the next Regular or Annual Membership Meeting.

4. Following the reading to the membership, a copy of the proposed amendment shall be displayed on the Club bulletin board until the proposal is voted upon.

5. A copy of the proposed amendment shall be furnished to each member within fifteen (15) days of the reading at the membership meeting.

6. At the next Regular or Annual Membership Meeting following the meeting at which the proposed amendment was read to the membership, the proposed amendment shall be called for vote. An affirmative vote by a two-thirds (2/3) majority of the member present and entitled to vote shall be sufficient to ratify a proposed amendment.

Two questions, does this require a motion and second to get on to floor, and can there be debait.

[Gary Novosielski]

That's a matter of interpretation. Presumably the membership can accept or reject the "recommendations" offered to them. Whether they can make recommendations of their own. RONR would certainly allow perfecting and debating this question before adopting it.

The question is whether these bylaws are just badly written or are they sufficiently specific in their intent to remove these fundamental rights of membership.

According to RONR they can debate and even amend the motion, but your bylaws supersede RONR. And you'll have to interpret what they actually mean for yourselves.

[Guest Jim Kinard]

Thanks,

I beleive they were just badly written. In the past we have had diebait after the motion to change, just recently there was no debait allowed on the vote.

I am trying to sure up the members right to be able to debait the motion without getting to technical.

change sec. 6

6. At the next Regular or Annual Membership Meeting following the meeting at which the proposed amendment was read to the membership, the proposed amendment shall be called for vote. After the proposed amendment has been called for a vote and a motion is made and seconded the members may speak under the discussion of the motion for or against the proposed amendment. An affirmative vote by a two-thirds (2/3) majority of the member present and entitled to vote shall be sufficient to ratify a proposed amendment.

Any suggestions.

Jim Kinard

[Gary Novosielski]

It's called "debate". Debait is what you put on dehook. And diebait is what happens after you do.

Hmm, somehow the bylaws got amended between the first time you posted them and the second time. I hope it was done according to the rules, whatever they are (they keep changing).

Oh, I see, you're trying to fix them. But you made them worse. Instead, Just changing "called for a vote" to "considered" would do the job. Normal consideration includes the right to debate, amend, refer, and many other ways of dealing with the proposed amendment.

Passing it is one of those options, of course.