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nominations and elections


Guest Sean

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Do nominations an elections have to be have to posted or announced prior to holding them if thay are the same month each year and it says that in the By-Laws

thanks I ask because we were in the middle of nominations when a member asked was a notice posted or an announcement made we said no its in the bylaws but we aloud him to nake a motion to delay for 1 month

An adopted motion that is in conflict with the bylaws is null and void (RONR 11th ed. p. 251 ( a )).

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An adopted motion that is in conflict with the bylaws is null and void (RONR 11th ed. p. 251 ( a )).

However, short of time travel, nothing much that can be done about that now except for holding elections at the next meeting.

I would suggest re-reading your bylaws, to see if there is a mention of a notification period, or a period in which you look for nominees. If not, consider adding that to your bylaws - your assembly, by allowing this member to make a motion to delay the election, and then passing the motion, does seem to agree that notification would be a good idea.

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Sean said:

they are the same month each year and it says that in the By-Laws

View PostGuest, on 19 September 2012 - 07:57 PM, said:

thanks I ask because we were in the middle of nominations when a member asked was a notice posted or an announcement made we said no its in the bylaws but we aloud him to nake a motion to delay for 1 month

An adopted motion that is in conflict with the bylaws is null and void (RONR 11th ed. p. 251 ( a )).

But Trina, how is this different from postponing the election, which I think is legit?

1.

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Do nominations and elections have to be have to posted or announced prior to holding them if thay are the same month each year and it says that in the By-Laws

If all it says in the bylaws is, for example, "September", how will the members know when, in September, and where the elections will be held? Date, time, and place must also be known.

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If all it says in the bylaws is, for example, "September", how will the members know when, in September, and where the elections will be held? Date, time, and place must also be known.

Well, they might know perfectly well when all of the regular monthly meetings are, and only need notice that elections are held at the September one.

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Sean said:

they are the same month each year and it says that in the By-Laws

View PostGuest, on 19 September 2012 - 07:57 PM, said:

thanks I ask because we were in the middle of nominations when a member asked was a notice posted or an announcement made we said no its in the bylaws but we aloud him to nake a motion to delay for 1 month

But Trina, how is this different from postponing the election, which I think is legit?

1.

I guess I read it as the member specifically making a motion to delay nominations for one month (since they were in the middle of nominations when this happened). Whether the election was supposed to take place at the same meeting was not clear to me. However, sMargaret is right that the action of delaying (nominations, at least) has now been taken, and there is no way to go back and undo the action. I notice that Guest_Sean never said that the member's motion was adopted; only that the member was allowed to make the motion. From context, I assume the motion to delay was adopted...

Also, I don't think a motion to postpone an election, whose date is specified in the bylaws, is proper, is it? Of course, the assembly could adjourn the meeting to a future date, with the election still pending; but that's not, strictly speaking, the same as simply moving to postpone the election to a future date.

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Also, I don't think a motion to postpone an election, whose date is specified in the bylaws, is proper, is it? Of course, the assembly could adjourn the meeting to a future date, with the election still pending; but that's not, strictly speaking, the same as simply moving to postpone the election to a future date.

Take a look at page 185.

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Take a look at page 185.

Yes, that does clarify the proper course of action, if it is desired to postpone an election whose time is set in the bylaws. The salient feature of a motion to postpone (in this case) is that 'the subsidiary motion to Postpone can be applied only to a question that is actually pending' (RONR 11th ed. p. 184 ll. 18-20), along with the opening sentence of the p. 185 citation:

'A matter that the bylaws require to be attended to at a specified session, such as the election of officers, cannot, in advance and through a main motion, be postponed to another session.'

In the situation described by the original poster, I guess there is a question of whether the election was actually pending when they were 'in the middle of nominations.'

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In the situation described by the original poster, I guess there is a question of whether the election was actually pending when they were 'in the middle of nominations.'

We don't have all of the facts from the original poster, but if they were in the middle of nominations which were to be immediately followed by the election itself, in my view, the answer would be yes.

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