Electing a New President of a Board

[Guest Jim Sofranek]

Our board consists of 9 members and, every year, we turn over 3 board members.

Historically, the outgoing board (the 6 remaining members and the 3 outgoing members) elects the new president before a meeting where the new board members and new officers are announced and introduced.

A few of our board members want to change this procedure so that the new board (the 6 remaining members of the board and the 3 new electees) elect the new president. They cite Roberts Rules of Order as a reference.

This doesn't make sense to me because the 3 new electees have little information about how good a job the remaining board members have been doing and who might be good candidates for the presidency or the other offices. I know that when I became a new member of this board, I would not have felt comfortable electing the new president or other officers - I had no idea who the good candidates were.

I saw the section in the Roberts Rules of Order manual that some of our board members are citing to support their change but I wanted to email your website to see if they are interpreting this section correctly.

Please advise.

Thank you.

[jstackpo]

What you describe would have to be spelled out in your bylaws as who gets to vote (the 3 on their way out, or the 3 on their way in) is a matter of who has a right to vote. It is also a matter of timing. Only members of the Board can vote.

Whether it is a good thing or not is up to you collectively -- debate it when the bylaw amendment is proposed.

Ask your buddy to SHOW YOU what he is talking about -- I am all but certain he won't be able to find what he claims is in RONR.

[Chris Harrison]

You should elect the President when the bylaws say you should. If they say that the President is elected before the new Board members take office and the old ones leave office you should do it at that point and if the bylaws say that the President is elected after the new Board members take office then you should do it at that point.

[sMargaret]

And if your bylaws don't specify when the President is elected, then change your bylaws so that it is obvious when the president is meant to be elected.

[Guest Edgar]

Just to be clear, I assume you're talking about the president (let's call him the chair) of the board and not the president of your organization. Or are they one and the same? A very common arrangement is for the general membership, at its annual meeting, to elect the officers (e.g. president, vice-president, secretary, and treasurer) of the organization, as well as (some of all of) the board members, and then for the board to meet (sometimes immediately after the annual meeting of the general membership, sometimes a few days later) and elect a chair and secretary (the only officers the board really needs). Of course what works best for some (even most) organizations may not work well for yours.

[Gary Novosielski]

If you already know who the outgoing members are, and who the incoming members are, then the election is complete, and those outgoing members are already gone, and have no vote.

[sMargaret]

If you already know who the outgoing members are, and who the incoming members are, then the election is complete, and those outgoing members are already gone, and have no vote.

Not necessarily - depends when the bylaws state the term of office is. If the bylaws do not specify a start to the term of office (new board takes position at the beginning of July, for example), then the incoming members take office immediately.

[Gary Novosielski]

Not necessarily - depends when the bylaws state the term of office is. If the bylaws do not specify a start to the term of office (new board takes position at the beginning of July, for example), then the incoming members take office immediately.

Yes, as my signature routinely points out, bylaws trump RONR.

However, I suspect that if the bylaws were clear, the question never would have come up. We're told that it was done "historically", i.e, according to a custom in support of which its proponents apparently cannot cite any clear rule, beyond custom. RONR on the other hand, is clear.

In such circumstances, custom falls to the ground upon a point of order noting the discrepancy.