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Resignation from office


elc

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If the President resigns, is removed from office, dies in office, etc. the Vice President AUTOMATICALLY becomes THE PRESIDENT, unless the By-laws specifically state otherwise.

If there is a vacancy in an office, check the By-laws about filling a vacancy. The Board may have the right to appoint someone to fill a vacancy, otherwise there would need to be a general membership meeting in order to fill the vacancy.

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Guest Lillian Cross

What happens if the president dies and the VP resigns? Convention is coming up in 5 months and there is nothing in the bylaws or standing rules to cover this or line of succession. What is the proper line of succession? Officers are President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Immediate Past President. The organization is nation-wide so calling a meeting is out of the question.

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What happens if the president dies and the VP resigns?

Has the VP's resignation been officially accepted? If not then the former VP is now President and you have a vacancy in the office of VP which needs to be filled. If the VP's resignation was officially accepted then you have a vacancy in both offices which needs to be filled. If the bylaws truly have no provisions for filling vacancies then the General Membership would have to do so and how to accomplish this is a problem you all will need to figure out. I would strongly advise you all to amend the bylaws to prevent this issue from cropping up again in the future.

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...

If the bylaws truly have no provisions for filling vacancies then the General Membership would have to do so and how to accomplish this is a problem you all will need to figure out.

....

However, under the 11th edition of RONR, see p. 467 ll. 28-35.

Basically, if the bylaws give the board full power and authority over the organization's affairs between meetings of the general membership, and if the bylaws don't specifically say the GM has the exclusive right to fill vacancies, then the board could fill these vacancies.

(Since the poster says there is nothing in the bylaws covering this, I assume the general membership does not have the exclusive right to fill the vacancies in this case.)

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Hello Everyone,

I have a quesiton. If a president of a volunteer organization resigns, can she appoint a replacement or does the vp always steps in? Also what about recording and corresponding secretaries?

Thanks for your help.

Since your question got hijacked after only one reply, and although you haven't responded perhaps because of some life distraction, I thought I'd answer your other question too should you return soon.

As noted, per RONR when the president resigns (or leaves office mid-term for any reason), the vice-president automatically becomes the president. And by that I don't mean "stepping in", but the vp is now the president. If your bylaws specifically address the filling of a vacancy in the presidency in some other manner, then the bylaws take precedence and the rule in RONR does not apply. This is the only case of automatic promotion in RONR.

If any other officer or member of the board resigns (or leaves office mid-term), there is no automatic promotion noted in RONR, and no one gets to appoint a replacement unless the bylaws so authorize that person or body. The bylaws may contain a provision for filling a vacancy, in which case that's the procedure you would follow. Otherwise, the membership would need to hold a special election to fill the position for the remainder of the term. Also, see the citation Trina provided above for one possible variation that may apply.

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Has the VP's resignation been officially accepted? If not then the former VP is now President and you have a vacancy in the office of VP which needs to be filled. If the VP's resignation was officially accepted then you have a vacancy in both offices which needs to be filled. If the bylaws truly have no provisions for filling vacancies then the General Membership would have to do so and how to accomplish this is a problem you all will need to figure out. I would strongly advise you all to amend the bylaws to prevent this issue from cropping up again in the future.

Thank you for your guidance. To me "officially accepted" means there must be some kind of process to do this. There is only the Sec and Treas left plus 3 elected Directors. What do they have to do to 'officially accept' this resignation and who does it (record the results of a poll, sign a paper and put in in the minutes book, etc.)? This is a non-profit group so I want to make sure all the papers are in order. Thank you.

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To me "officially accepted" means there must be some kind of process to do this. There is only the Sec and Treas left plus 3 elected Directors. What do they have to do to 'officially accept' this resignation and who does it (record the results of a poll, sign a paper and put in in the minutes book, etc.)?

First of all you need to find out which body is authorized to accept resignations (check the bylaws). Then a member of that body would make a motion to accept the resignation and it takes a majority vote to adopt the motion. The Secretary would include the language of the motion plus the results in the minutes.

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