By-Laws Revisions Affects Title of Officers

[Guest Joe D]

If two people were elected to office as Co-Presidents as allowed by the current By-Laws, but then the By-Laws committee proposed changing the Article on the composition of the officers so that there would be a separate President and Vice-President, can one of the Co-Presidents then be forced into the Vice-Presidency before their term has ended? Thanks.

[Gary c Tesser]

Well, once the bylaws committee's suggestion is adopted, there will no longer be an office of co-president, true? So BOTH current co-presidents will be out of office. I would think that the best way to handle what to do with them would be to adopt a proviso along with the bylaw, spelling out the specifics of the transition (p. 597 - 8).

(Yes, that does cover the question procedurally, but I touched the question of **what** you decide to do with them, that you'll put into the proviso. Stay calm, I'm still typing.)

I think the fairest thing for the proviso to provide (hence its name, if you go along with spelling a "d" with an "s," as, apparently, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian do -- or some of them) would be for the organization to hold a by-election, for the newly-created offices. If such a special election is impractical, then, hmm. I dunno. We'll have to think of something. Write back, Joe D. Bring donuts, it's a long night already.

I will say that the proposed bylaw change will NOT automatically make one of the former co-presidents the president and the other the vice-president. But the proviso can do that (if that's what you mean by "-forcing-").

[Guest Joe D]

Thanks for your help...it was key.

Joe