By-laws and proper / unproper vote

[Thomas Cothron]

At a recent meeting a vote was held to decide who could be heard at our monthly meetings. The basis was that certain groups may be out of the scope of our organization and therefore should not be recognized / heard at our meetings. In part, the 'Purpose' of our by-laws read: "This organization is established to better serve the students, school and community".

Questions:

Was this a legal vote or a policy vote that should have been handled differently?

If necessary, how can we undo this and approach it differently?

Suggestions (if necessary) on re-wording the by-law term 'community'.

[George Mervosh]

If the groups you're referring to are non-members, they have no right to be heard and it's perfectly proper to adopt a rule specifying which ones will and will not be heard from.

[David A Foulkes]

At a recent meeting a vote was held to decide who could be heard at our monthly meetings. The basis was that certain groups may be out of the scope of our organization and therefore should not be recognized / heard at our meetings. In part, the 'Purpose' of our by-laws read: "This organization is established to better serve the students, school and community".

Questions:

Was this a legal vote or a policy vote that should have been handled differently?

If necessary, how can we undo this and approach it differently?

Suggestions (if necessary) on re-wording the by-law term 'community'.

The purpose of your organization is to 'serve the community', and you achieve that through the decisions made and actions taken (as a consquence thereof) by your organization. It doesn't necessarily follow that the community has a say (via meeting attendance and vocal contributions, and certainly never voting) in those decisions. Whether you wish to allow it or not is one of those decisions the organization makes, by way of motion, debate and vote of the membership. As George noted, this allowance can be applied selectively even, and with greater limitation (frequency of attendance, length of time allowed to speak, etc) than is placed on the membership.

[Guest Laura S.]

If at a nomination meeting 5 people were nomintaed for 4 member at large positions which now will go to a vote the following month (any number of people can be nomited for this position) the nominations closed and meeting was adjourned. Then later that eveing someone (the president of our board) remembers that he did not nominate a gentleman for member at large who was not present but he did have a letter from this person accepting the position, Still the nominations were closed and meeting over, We run our meeting for the association by the Roberts Rules of order. We are a non profit organization. Your answer is very inportant to us. Thanking you in advance for you time.

[Guest Edgar]

Your answer is very important to us.

And your question is very important to us. So please start a new topic and, this time, ask a question.

[David A Foulkes]

If at a nomination meeting 5 people were nomintaed for 4 member at large positions which now will go to a vote the following month (any number of people can be nomited for this position) the nominations closed and meeting was adjourned. Then later that eveing someone (the president of our board) remembers that he did not nominate a gentleman for member at large who was not present but he did have a letter from this person accepting the position, Still the nominations were closed and meeting over, We run our meeting for the association by the Roberts Rules of order. We are a non profit organization. Your answer is very inportant to us. Thanking you in advance for you time.

Please post your question as a New Topic here.