Bylaws

[Guest Fred]

Our club by-laws state

 

"THESE BY-LAWS MAY BE AMENDED BY AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP, PROVIDED THAT NOTICE OF THE PROPOSED AMENDMENT IS PUBLISHED IN THE CLUB NEWSLETTER OR BY WRITTEN NOTIFICATION TO THE MEMBERSHIP AT LEAST 5 DAYS PRIOR TO THE MEETING AT WHICH THE AMENDMENT IS TO BE CONSIDERED."

 

Question 1: If the total membership is 100  but only 30 show up to vote at the meeting can the by-laws be amended at the meeting since a notification was sent to every member or does the above require that at least 51 members must vote affirmative to amend the by-laws? I believe that the latter is correct but wish conformation.

 

Question 2: There is talk about re-writing the by-laws. Can this be done and a majority vote be taken to accept the re-written by-laws in lieu of the present one or do we need to first vote to void the current by-laws before accepting the newer version?

 

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Chris Harrison]

1) It is up to you all to interpret your own bylaws.  See RONR pp. 588-591 for some principles to help doing that.

2) Neither.  Doing a revision (re-write) is amending the bylaws (by offering a new document as a substitute for the original one) so would require the same vote as to amend them (RONR p. 593).

[jstackpo]

1)   You are indeed correct.  See p. 403 for a discussion.

 

2)   Yes.  Voting for an all new (re-written, anyway) set of bylaws is proper.  Its called a "General Revision"  --  see p. 593.  Don't "void" the current ones - that (technically) will cause your association to cease to exist.

[jstackpo]

Parliamentarians don't always agree on all points. Often because the information that comes in in the pseudo-Tweets typed here may be incomplete.  More conversation may clear things up.

[g40]

it is indeed up to your organization to interpret its bylaws, but I believe a point could be made that "AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP" could be interpreted as a majority vote at a meeting. So, in your case, of attendance of 30, as long as there is a quorum, a vote of, say, 16-15 would pass. Good Luck!

[sMargaret]

When you do amend the bylaws, make sure you amend the whole  "AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP", OK? Is the majority of the membership required for the quorum, or for the vote?

[Josh Martin]

1)   You are indeed correct.  See p. 403 for a discussion.

 

I don't think "affirmative vote of a majority of the club membership" unambiguously means "vote of a majority of the entire membership," although that is certainly one possible interpretation.

[Dan Honemann]

it is indeed up to your organization to interpret its bylaws, but I believe a point could be made that "AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP" could be interpreted as a majority vote at a meeting. So, in your case, of attendance of 30, as long as there is a quorum, a vote of, say, 16-15 would pass. Good Luck!

 

Not a chance.

[Josh Martin]

So, in your case, of attendance of 30, as long as there is a quorum, a vote of, say, 16-15 would pass.

 

If there are 30 members in attendance, a vote of 16-15 should be counted again. 

[Gary Novosielski]

it is indeed up to your organization to interpret its bylaws, but I believe a point could be made that "AFFIRMATIVE VOTE OF A MAJORITY OF THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP" could be interpreted as a majority vote at a meeting. So, in your case, of attendance of 30, as long as there is a quorum, a vote of, say, 16-15 would pass. Good Luck!

 

But I doubt that the point, if made, would be well taken.  The distinction between "majority of the CLUB membership" and "majority of the ENTIRE membership" is not distinct enough for me.

 

You'd need to explain how entire club is different from the club.  (And who cast that 31st vote)

[dazzze]

Greetings,

I have a question,is there anywhere in RONR that allows for temporary bylaws, that will be desolved after an appointed date. Example this particular bylaw will allow date extenstion of dues. Our current bylaw specifically states that "each member must pay by" a certain date or a "fee will be assest", we do not want to suspend, change or amemd this bylaw, but add a temporary bylaw to change the date for approx 4 months out. Is there anywhere in RONR that supports this?

Thanks

[jstackpo]

It is best if you post a new question as a "New Topic".

 

Meanwhile, take  look at p. 597.  A proviso may be what you are asking about.