Guest Disgruntled Posted August 11, 2012 at 05:35 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 05:35 PM Ok, I have a question in regards to credentials. A little background is, in this fairly large national organization, there is a slight division.The organizations board consists of a representative from each state, of which I am one. The person is question is opposite me in most of our opinions and such, but that's really irrelevant here. She was running, uncontested, for VP, but this board meeting took place before the election.Here's what happened. This person owns homes in two different states, WV and MA. In the past, she had divided her time between the two states, but for the past 2 years plus she has lived in only WV. For that state, she is the director (aka board member) on file. Each state, which is an affiliate, elects or appoints a person to represent them, and it is those representatives that make up the board of directors for the organization. Each state is also allowed one alternate director. (for clarification here, director and board members are terms used interchangeably). Before the meeting, this person told me she would be representing MA at the meeting, but would not have a vote. In the meeting, she voted for MA. She had had her state of WV send in credentials for their alternate director to be her husband. So he voted for WV. So we have them carrying two votes, her for MA, and her husband for WV.Ok...now.... some bylaws.ARTICLE VI - THE BOARD338339 Section 1: Composition340341 The board shall consist of one director selected by each state affiliate..... in addition to the elected officers. The person selected to serve as a343 representative for the annual board meeting by each state affiliate must reside in that344 state.The above is the requirement for residency...And here is the definition of an alternate director, from the section of the bylaws on definitions....54 13. ALTERNATE DIRECTOR shall be that person certified by the state affiliate to act55 in and for the state director in his absenceSo I have here 2 questions.One... does owning a house in a state in which you have not physically lived in for two years constitute residency? Should she have been allowed to vote for MA?Two... based on the definition of alternate director, which states "In his absence".... should her husband have been allowed to vote as an alternate, since she was NOT absent from the meeting?This would perhaps not be such a big issue... but here's the problem. At this meeting, we elected a member of the board to serve on the Executive Council. She nominated someone for it, and it's fairly safe to assume she and her husband voted for him. I nominated someone else, and her nominee won the election......BY TWO VOTES. If their votes were illegal votes, it would place the two nominees at a tie!!Thanks a bunch in advance!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted August 11, 2012 at 05:42 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 05:42 PM It is beyond this forum's scope to interpret bylaws (which your questions are asking us to do). See RONR pp. 588-591 for some principles to help you all with that.I am not sure whether this will help but see RONR pp. 607-640 regarding holding a convention of an organized society with a focus on pp. 615-616 which discusses contesting the Credentials Committee report. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edgar Posted August 11, 2012 at 06:10 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 06:10 PM The person is question is opposite me in most of our opinions and such, but that's really irrelevant here.I hope you didn't think your post would have been too short without it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Disgruntled Posted August 11, 2012 at 06:33 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 06:33 PM Ok, without asking anyone to interpret our bylaws, do you feel this is something that warrants more looking into, or am i wasting my time here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted August 11, 2012 at 07:02 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 07:02 PM Ok, without asking anyone to interpret our bylaws, do you feel this is something that warrants more looking into, or am i wasting my time here?It almost never hurts to look into things but unless you can show that there is a continuing breach (see RONR pp. 250-251) you are probably out of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edgar Posted August 11, 2012 at 07:08 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2012 at 07:08 PM . . .do you feel this is something that warrants more looking into, or am i wasting my time here?I think the answer to both questions is "yes". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sMargaret Posted August 12, 2012 at 02:46 AM Report Share Posted August 12, 2012 at 02:46 AM As I understand it, there would be three sets of bylaws to review in this instance - the set for the national organization, the set for WV and the set for MA. Was she correctly elected or appointed as a representative for WV and MA? That is a concern of WV and MA. Was her husband correctly elected or appointed as an alternate representative? Would your organization actually allow for a representative to vote twice, if they're representing two states? That would depend on the organization - the RONR default would be one person one vote. When is the next board meeting? Were any of these concerns raised at the time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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