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Dealing with leave of absence.


Jamey

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My president granted one of our officers "leave of absence" (four months ago). There is nothing in our by-laws that allow this, and RONR does not address this (probably because the president doesn't have the authority to grant something not afforded in our by laws. This position is a position that is vital to the operation of our organization. The president and other officials took it upon themselves to divide the work load of the missing officer, (which I can understand for a couple of days or weeks) but now that we are at the four month juncture, I don't think this was the proper approach to take. I believe as per our by laws that at some point this officer need to either resign or be removed. The only problem is the president wrongly granted a leave of absence. My question is, would it be proper for me to rise to previous notice, to the extent of making a motion (at our next scheduled meeting) to nominate and elect someone to that position "pro tem" until this officer can address the body or his term is expired (which ever comes first)?

Our by laws do not address "pro tem" officers just as it don't deal with "leave of absence", but I don't want to put the president in position where he think this is an attack on him opposed to what it really is... A necessity to fill a position that is vital to our organization.

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My question is, would it be proper for me to rise to previous notice, to the extent of making a motion (at our next scheduled meeting) to nominate and elect someone to that position "pro tem" until this officer can address the body or his term is expired (which ever comes first)?

 

No

 

If you want to replace the officer, he'll either need to resign or be removed.

 

(Unless this officer happens to be the Secretary, in which case a Secretary Pro Tempore can and should be appointed - but he would only perform the duties of the Secretary in connection with meetings, such as taking minutes. If your bylaws assign other duties to the Secretary, appointing a pro tem officer won't help with that. There's also a Chairman Pro Tempore, but it looks like the President hasn't gone anywhere.)

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"Unless this officer happens to be the Secretary"... That would be one of his positions. The other (which in my opinion is the more consequential) is "business agent". Job is too complicated to list, suffice it to say it deals with the everyday functioning of our organization.

 

Like I said, you can appoint a Secretary Pro Tempore to perform the duties associated with meetings (minutes, etc.), but that's it. Other than that, you had it absolutely right "that at some point this officer need to either resign or be removed." I think you reached that point a while ago.

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Okay, I understand that. I have just one more question as it relates to this. Since the president decided to grant a leave of absence and this said "leave" is still on going, would I have to raise a point of order to address this, or do I simply rise to previous notice to have the officer removed from office at our next scheduled meeting? Our by laws do not provide a procedure for "removal", it simply states, “Any Officer shall be subject to removal or expulsion from office that is found guilty of dishonesty, conduct unbecoming of an Officer, or conduct detrimental to the welfare of [organization name]".

Josh I really appreciate your insight!

I asked about the previous notice because it requires a simple majority vote opposed to the 2/3. Would this be the best avenue to take?

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Since the president decided to grant a leave of absence and this said "leave" is still on going, would I have to raise a point of order to address this, or do I simply rise to previous notice to have the officer removed from office at our next scheduled meeting?

 

You should make a point of order to the effect that the president had no authority to grant a "leave of absence".

 

There is no such thing as "rising to previous notice".

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I suppose I should have added the word "give", as in "rising" to be acknowledged by the chair during a meeting. Doing a basic inquiry of the situation with the president so that the body is now aware of the fact that the president's authority does have limits (via the point of order)... Concluding with the the statement "therefore the member rise to give previous notice, that on our next scheduled meeting I will move to have the sec./B.A. removed from office for ....."

"On the other hand, if the bylaws state a term for the office but add “or until [the officer's] successor is elected,” or contain other wording explicitly indicating that the officer may be removed before the term expires, then the officer can be removed from office by a two-thirds vote, by a majority vote when previous notice has been given..." (Excerpt from RONR #20)

How else can I give previous notice, if I do not rise to give it (after being acknowledged of coarse)?

Would that not be the proper way to do this, or am I missing something?

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