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Another Board member question


Guest Spindr

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O.K. New to this forum. So I hope this works.

Have a Booster board for local HS sports team. The bylaws require that a board member must have a student on the team to sit on the board.

The President and VP kids either did not make the team or are academically ineligible. So they can not sit on the board. The President wishes to stay and has asked the Treasurer to make a motion to change the bylaws. The Secretary is against it since it would then render the bylaws pointless. There are only 4 positions, President, V.P., Secretary, Treasurer.

Question 1. If the Treasurer does make this motion, do the President and VP have a vote since they are now not qualified to sit on the

board? Bylaws do not give direction.

Question 2. Is there a traditional order of succession as only two officers remain? Would the Secretary or Treasurer step in as "acting

President" until another could be elected? No one can give me an answer as to whether the bylaws outline for this

circumstance.

Question 3. Does the Secretary/Treasurer get appointed to the Presidency then a new Secretary/Treasurer elected, or are

the Secretary/Treasurer required to be nominated to the Presidents office and then officially elected in if they wish to

accept that office?

Thanx for any direction, apparently whoever put together the bylaws never planned on encountering a scenario like this. Hard to believe they've never had an issue with an officer not being able to fulfill his/her term before, regarless of cause.

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First welcome to the Board!! Don't be discouraged by the following...

And the following is... unfortunately, your questions pertain mainly to your bylaws and the particular rules in them, not Robert's Rules. So the answers have to be rather general, and will require you to look closely at your bylaws.

1) Right now, since those two people don't have on-team kids, they are NOT on the Board at all. You have two vacancies, the Pres. and V-Pres positions. Obviously, those two have no vote and no say AT ALL in board meetings. You will have to look in your bylaws to see how vacancies, in general, are filled. Then check to see how amendments are made - that is also in your bylaws, or should be, near the end, usually.

2) Until you fill the vacancies, the other members present elect a presiding officer, pro tem, for each meeting right at the start of the meeting.

3) Same as 1).

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Have a Booster board for local HS sports team. The bylaws require that a board member must have a student on the team to sit on the board.

The President and VP kids either did not make the team or are academically ineligible. So they can not sit on the board. The President wishes to stay and has asked the Treasurer to make a motion to change the bylaws. The Secretary is against it since it would then render the bylaws pointless. There are only 4 positions, President, V.P., Secretary, Treasurer.

Your bylaws will be critical in answering your questions, and we don't interpret them here.

First, being President or VP does not necessarily mean you are on the board. The bylaws would need specify that, and typically the officers (Pres, VP, Sec, Treas) are ex-officio members of the board. That is, they are members of the board by virtue of another position (their office). Conceivably, one could be President and not be on the board, in particular if additional qualification requirements cannot be met, as it seems to be in your case. So, your Pres and VP may still retain those offices, without being on the board. The answer to that will be in your bylaws. If your Pres and VP are elected directly to those offices, they are probably still holding them. They just aren't board members.

As noted, the bylaws can only be changed (amended) in one of two ways:

"The bylaws should always prescribe the procedure for their amendment, and such provision should always require at least that advance notice be given in a specified manner, and that the amendment be approved by a two thirds vote. If the bylaws contain no provision for their amendment, they can be amended by a two-thirds vote if previous notice (in the sense defined on page 121) has been given, or they can be amended by the vote of a majority of the entire membership." (RONR 11th Ed, p. 580 ll. 25 - p. 581 l. 7)

So, if the bylaws contain a provision for their amendment, that must be followed. If they don't, the above gives the method available. And note that unless the bylaws give the board the authority to amend the bylaws, that power is retained by the general membership, and thus amendment must occur at a membership meeting.

Question 1. If the Treasurer does make this motion, do the President and VP have a vote since they are now not qualified to sit on the

board?

This will only work if the bylaws are amended properly, as I noted above. If so, then yes.

Question 2. Is there a traditional order of succession as only two officers remain? Would the Secretary or Treasurer step in as "acting

President" until another could be elected? No one can give me an answer as to whether the bylaws outline for this

circumstance.

The only order of succession noted in RONR is when the President leaves office mid-term the Vice President becomes the President.

Question 3. Does the Secretary/Treasurer get appointed to the Presidency then a new Secretary/Treasurer elected, or are

the Secretary/Treasurer required to be nominated to the Presidents office and then officially elected in if they wish to

accept that office?

I'm still not convinced the Pres and VP aren't still in those positions. It appears they aren't on the board, but a full review of your bylaws is needed to know for sure what their status is.

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Thank You for your direction.

If I'm understanding you correctly, someone can hold the office of Pres. & V.P. with out being an actual member? The bylaws do NOT address this either way and if the bylaws do not address such a circumstance then am I correct in saying anyone who wishes to run for Pres. and/or V.P. can do so and possibly be elected even if they are not a member? Simply because the bylaws didn't provide this restriction? I suppose I'm asking you to interpret our bylaws and you've made it clear that you don't. But any guidance you give is greatly appreciated. Thank You.

As an aside, I discovered from the bylaws that elections for these offices were to be done after the final roster positions were decided for the current season. The "current" board that was elected to represent the current season was done at the end of last year, before the current roster was completed, in violation of the bylaws. The current Pres. and V.P. would like to retain their position without having a child on the team, so your direction would be of great help as to how the Rules apply to this circumstance. If this is something that is allowed or even required by the Rules of Order, then that would answer a lot of questions and we could simply hold the elections again with the current members and be done with it.

I appreciate the indulgence.

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