Guest Jerry GCMRC Posted March 8, 2012 at 07:34 AM Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 at 07:34 AM A QUESTION arises about the acceptability of writing or revising ByLaws when a Quorum is not present?An actual incident. February 1 -- at Regular Business Meeting for the month it was determined that a Special Meeting to discuss By-Law Revisions and Additions should be held on February 13. Special Meeting, February 13. Call to Order. No Quorum present. Movead to go into Committee of the Whole, where By-Laws were discussed, changes proposed (written) and a new By-Law section was completely written. Came out of the Committee of the Whole. At no time was a Quorum present. Minutes of Special Meeting just mention that a Commmittee of the Whole made suggested By-Law Changes to be voted on at the March 7 Meeting. Meeting adjourned. By February 22, members received the proposed changes via either e-mail or U. S. Mail, as required in current By-Laws. At next Regular Business Meeting, March 7, said Revised By-Laws and newly written new By-Law were presented to the General Membership for a vote. Although a quorum is present, not enough members are present to pass By-Laws by our necessary 2/3 majority. Absentee Ballots will be sent out to those members not present.Question is this: Can any discussion be held on any issue if there is not a quorum? Can suggested By-Law changes be made for presentation and to be voted upon at the next Regular General Meeting?Some members believe this method is acceptable, some do not. Please advise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted March 8, 2012 at 12:58 PM Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 at 12:58 PM Question is this: Can any discussion be held on any issue if there is not a quorum?Sure. It would be only natural for the members present to discuss things while waiting for other members to show up. But there can be few official actions taken in the absence of a quorum. I don't think, for example, that a motion to go into a committee of the whole was appropriate (though I also think it was essentially meaningless). And any proposals arising from such a gathering would have no more force than those coming from any informal group of members. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trina Posted March 8, 2012 at 01:37 PM Report Share Posted March 8, 2012 at 01:37 PM A QUESTION arises about the acceptability of writing or revising ByLaws when a Quorum is not present?An actual incident. February 1 -- at Regular Business Meeting for the month it was determined that a Special Meeting to discuss By-Law Revisions and Additions should be held on February 13. Special Meeting, February 13. Call to Order. No Quorum present. Movead to go into Committee of the Whole, where By-Laws were discussed, changes proposed (written) and a new By-Law section was completely written. Came out of the Committee of the Whole. At no time was a Quorum present. Minutes of Special Meeting just mention that a Commmittee of the Whole made suggested By-Law Changes to be voted on at the March 7 Meeting. Meeting adjourned. By February 22, members received the proposed changes via either e-mail or U. S. Mail, as required in current By-Laws. At next Regular Business Meeting, March 7, said Revised By-Laws and newly written new By-Law were presented to the General Membership for a vote. Although a quorum is present, not enough members are present to pass By-Laws by our necessary 2/3 majority. Absentee Ballots will be sent out to those members not present.Question is this: Can any discussion be held on any issue if there is not a quorum? Can suggested By-Law changes be made for presentation and to be voted upon at the next Regular General Meeting?Some members believe this method is acceptable, some do not. Please advise.If the bylaws amendment process (as described in the existing bylaws) allows proposed amendments to be submitted by members (and RONR certainly does allow this), then, as long as notice requirements were met, the process of producing those amendments doesn't really matter much at this point. To look at it another way, would there be any problem (under the rules of your organization) if half a dozen members had gotten together in someone's living room, worked up a set of proposed bylaws amendments, and submitted them for consideration?It's true that the inquorate meeting couldn't properly do what it did, but what it amounted to in the end was a group of members gathering informally and coming up with bylaws amendments.The more important questions may center on what happened at the March 7 meeting. When you say you didn't get the 'necessary 2/3 majority' -- do your bylaws require approval from 2/3 of the entire membership? Or just a 2/3 vote at the meeting? Furthermore, do the bylaws specifically allow the use of absentee ballots under these circumstances? Counting the votes of members present, and then sending out absentee ballots to other members would not be permitted under the rules in RONR; even simpler, absentee voting is not permitted at all. Any use of absentee voting must be authorized by your own bylaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.