Guest Ruger9729 Posted September 29, 2012 at 02:37 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 02:37 PM We had a member give his alcohol to an underage employee. We terminated her employment and revoked his membership. However, or by-laws are set up for 1st offense, 2nd and 3rd being 7 days, 14 and 30 respectively. However, our House rules give us the ability to act accordingly in respect to the severity of the incident. My question is: Are we covered by our House rules or have we overstepped our authority? I should add that this is what is being brought to us. Does anyone have any advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted September 29, 2012 at 03:08 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 03:08 PM A provision of a higher ranked document would be controlling when it conflicts with one of a lower ranking document. Whether the bylaws are ranked higher than the House Rules in the scheme of things in the organization is for you all to determine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ruger9729 Posted September 29, 2012 at 03:55 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 03:55 PM I apologize but I'm not quite sure that I understand. Can we simply say that the house rules are simply to compliment our by-laws therefore giving us legal authority? If so, how would we go about it? And thank you very much for your help. I have spoken with an LCE agent and he said that if he got a complaint that we didn't follow our by-laws, he would give us a written warning as he believes that we "acted in the best interests of the law". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnR Posted September 29, 2012 at 04:18 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 04:18 PM We don't address legal issues in this forum, only matters of parliamentary procedure. As to the question of terminating membership, if your House rules are in the nature of standing rules, they yield to your bylaws; in case of conflict, you must follow the bylaws. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ruger9729 Posted September 29, 2012 at 04:28 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 04:28 PM Thank you for yor help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Novosielski Posted September 29, 2012 at 06:17 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 06:17 PM We had a member give his alcohol to an underage employee. We terminated her employment and revoked his membership. However, or by-laws are set up for 1st offense, 2nd and 3rd being 7 days, 14 and 30 respectively. However, our House rules give us the ability to act accordingly in respect to the severity of the incident. My question is: Are we covered by our House rules or have we overstepped our authority? I should add that this is what is being brought to us. Does anyone have any advice?It's entirely possible that termination of her employment would be covered by house rules, and that the bylaws would apply to termination of membership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Edgar Posted September 29, 2012 at 07:39 PM Report Share Posted September 29, 2012 at 07:39 PM It's entirely possible that termination of her employment would be covered by house rules, and that the bylaws would apply to termination of membership.As I read it, the terminated (i.e. fired) under-age employee was not a member. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ruger9729 Posted September 30, 2012 at 01:45 PM Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 at 01:45 PM The employee was not a member. The issue being brought to us is that we are being questioned as to our authority. We felt that the action was enough to revoke his membership but our by-laws are vague in terms of serious incidents. Can we rely on our house rules as a compliment? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Harrison Posted September 30, 2012 at 02:08 PM Report Share Posted September 30, 2012 at 02:08 PM If your bylaws are higher ranked than the House Rules (which they probably are) then the bylaws would control when there is a conflict between the two. Without knowing the exact language in both documents (don't post them here because it is beyond this forum's scope to do interpretation) it is hard to give you a firm answer. However, assuming the bylaws don't have some qualifying language regarding what sort of offenses the 7, 14, and 30 day rule is applicable it would seem that those limits are pretty set in stone and the Membership is pretty limited in how much discretion they have in imposing the punishments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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