Nominations of Board Members

[Guest Sandy Kasson-Dick]

I am the secretary of The Oldtime Farming Festival in Centerburg, OH.  It states in our By-Laws that the nominations of new officers will be held at our annual meeting which is in November, which would be the final voting for any new nominations.  The president of our organization did open the floor for additional nominations and nobody nominated anyone new but to only keep the current officers as is.  My question is, when there is a motion made to keep the existing officers and someone seconds that motion and then a vote is held and passes, are the members who were against the nomination allowed to reopen it at the next meeting for new nominations? 

[jstackpo]

Before we can answer your specific question, we need a specific piece of information:

 

Do your bylaws require that elections be held (voted on) by ballot?

[Guest Sandy Kasson-Dick]

It is stated in the By-Laws that when there is a nomination of new officers, then it is by private ballot and each officer is to be voted on separately.  The president stated that in our November meeting, we would hold the election but the floor was opened in this meeting for those nominations.  There were no nominations made for new officers but to keep the current officers as is.  There was then a motion made to keep the existing officers and then someone second that motion.  We did have a discussion after the motions were made and still nobody made any new nominations.  Then they held the voting in which is passed 22 wanting to keep the existing officers and 3 opposing it which made the motion pass.

[jstackpo]

I take it that you did not hold a ballot vote, which would have given those unhappy with the current (and continuing) officers a chance to vote, via write-in, for someone else.  (Voting for "someone else" is the only proper way you can vote "against" a single nominee for an office.)

 

So any member, next meeting, can raise what seems to me a perfectly proper point of order that the bylaws were not followed in the election process, and the chair, if he knows what he is doing (and is fair) will agree and declare the just completed election invalid.

 

Then you reopen the floor for nominations, and vote again for whomever you wish, but do the voting by ballot (even if the nominee is unopposed) this time around.

[Guest Sandy Kasson-Dick]

Thank you for your information and time