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[Guest eb]

a board member was removed by board approval based on misinformation.

1. board claimed that board member was not a member of the organization since his membership dues were not current. Fact - the office misapplied the payment

2. board member was not at any board meetings since elected to the board. Fact.- chairman of the board neglected to get new board member's e-mail address and did not invite him.

there might be a hidden agenda of several board members who don't want this gentleman on the board and would be happy to replace him with someone of their choosing.

what is the recourse of the board members who do want this man to stay?

[Guest Guest]

Litigation.

[jstackpo]

Major point - being arrears with dues payment does NOT "remove" anyone from membership - RONR, p. 406 - unless you have a bylaw provision explicitly saying so.

Clearly the administrative failure to credit the dues or get an e-mail in place is not the "fault" of the "removed" board member.

I'll leave the "hidden agenda" business up to you, since that is a political, not parliamentary, problem.

[Chris Harrison]

I would also question whether the Board has the authority to remove the Board member in the first place. Do the bylaws grant the Board the authority to remove their own members?

[Guest eb]

Major point - being arrears with dues payment does NOT "remove" anyone from membership - RONR, p. 406 - unless you have a bylaw provision explicitly saying so.

Clearly the administrative failure to credit the dues or get an e-mail in place is not the "fault" of the "removed" board member.

I'll leave the "hidden agenda" business up to you, since that is a political, not parliamentary, problem.

So how does the previous board decision to remove him get rescinded? Also, is it the responsibility of the chairman of the board to notify the new board member of the meetings or is the board member supposed to figure it out for himself by asking other board members?

[Guest eb]

I would also question whether the Board has the authority to remove the Board member in the first place. Do the bylaws grant the Board the authority to remove their own members?

There is nothing in the by laws of the orginization that allows or disallows removal of a board member by the board. the president of the organization, not the chairman of the board, says that since he was removed by board vote that is how he has to be put back on the board. T here is a chance that there will not be enough board members who are in his favore at the next meeting to get him voted back. We need to figure out how to rescind the the original vote of dismissal.

Can you verify the following - that if he is to be removed he is entitled to present his case before the board and entitled to a proper hearing. The board asked him to leave the room and then voted him off. Sound to me like a kangaroo court.

[Chris Harrison]

There is nothing in the by laws of the orginization that allows or disallows removal of a board member by the board....We need to figure out how to rescind the the original vote of dismissal.

Unless the bylaws grants the Board the authority to remove their own members there is nothing to Rescind since the removal is null and void because the Board exceeded its authority (RONR p. 251[a] and p. 482 ll. 25-29) and the General Membership is the proper body to do the removal (unless the bylaws grant some other body that authority). If the Board insists that they have the authority to remove Board members ask them to point out a rule giving them that authority.

Also, is it the responsibility of the chairman of the board to notify the new board member of the meetings or is the board member supposed to figure it out for himself by asking other board members?

The Secretary should be sending out a Call (notice) of each Board meeting to each Board member (RONR p. 459 ll. 18-23).

I would suggest that the Board member find out from an ally on the Board when the next meeting is and show up and take his seat. Chances are that someone is going to claim that he was removed from the Board so he has no right to attend in which case an ally should be prepared to Appeal any ruling (RONR pp. 255-260) that he was removed from the Board and have the citations I provided above ready. If the Board decides to uphold the Chair's ruling the Board member and his allies should be prepared to take their case to the General Membership who will (hopefully) be able to rein in the Board. A motion to censure (or some other method of discipline) the Board members for exceeding their authority might be warranted.

[jstackpo]

Maybe the litigation, or threat of it, will be what you have to fall back on.

Since the "removal" of the member was, from what you say, totally improper, all that is necessary is to raise a point of order that the action was improper. No need to move to rescind what was improper in the first place. If the chairman is playing fair, that ends it, and the member resumes his rightful position. If not... well, be sure you have a majority on your side at the meeting to win any appeal of what the chair might rule on the point.

If all that fails... back to litigation (threats).

RONR can be viewed as a book of etiquette, for people to use to see how to behave, but only if they WANT to behave. If they don't want to behave, the book isn't going to help (with the possible exception of Chapter XX).