Signing Authority

[Guest adelemac]

The President of a small non-incorporated club has recently nominated and subsequently appointed her Mother to the role of Treasurer.  Under our club's By-Laws they now both have signing authority.  Is this correct?  The background is that another individual did put their  name up for consideration and did early on in the Board vote gain a majority 4 / 7 however that changed.  Thank you in advance for any insight.

 

[Dan Honemann]

The President of a small non-incorporated club has recently nominated and subsequently appointed her Mother to the role of Treasurer.  Under our club's By-Laws they now both have signing authority.  Is this correct?  The background is that another individual did put their  name up for consideration and did early on in the Board vote gain a majority 4 / 7 however that changed.  Thank you in advance for any insight.

 

You're asking us?

 

Nothing in Robert's Rules of Order prohibits a mother and daughter from having signing authority, but even if there was a rule in RONR prohibiting them from having that authority it wouldn't matter, since your bylaws say that they do have it.

[sMargaret]

The background is that another individual did put their  name up for consideration and did early on in the Board vote gain a majority 4 / 7 however that changed.  

 

I am curious as to what this statement means. The treasurer position was appointed, but that was after someone else had a majority vote in their favour?

[Guest Edgar]

And if the president has the authority to appoint the treasurer, why bother to "nominate" her in the first place?

[Guest Guest]

Yes...  It all started when the President, VP and a Director all resigned.  Then the President and Director un-resigned.  The VP did not return.  The sitting Treasurer then decided he wanted to be VP, so he was appointed.  One of the remaining Board members then approached the remaining board members with a name to replace the now vacant Treasurer's role.  The name was put forward to the Board and a vote was held.  Remember I said the President plays fast and loose with the By-Laws, within a day a 4/7 majority was achieved.  However the President then stated that the vote would remain open for another 48 hours.  The new VP changed his vote from Yea to Nea...  and the Presidents mother was appointed. 

 

I was just hoping to find a way through this mess and was hoping this "relationship" might lead to something that could be used to make the required changes.     

[sMargaret]

Wow - this is kind of like a case study in what not to do.

 

Some points:

* Unresigned? Do you mean that they rescinded their resignations before the Board (or general membership) accepted the resignations, or do you mean something else?

 

* Does the Board have authority to replace an officer position, or is this something that only the general members may do? Does the President have the authority to replace an officer position? It looks like there was a board vote, the board voted on what - whether or not to accept a particular person?  Some sort of yes/no vote for an election? And then the President appointed yet another person, who was not on that ballot?

 

* How was the vote held? I'm going to assume that this was not an in-person meeting that went on for 48+ hours, so while it may have started in person, at some point it became (presumably) electronic. Do your bylaws specifically authorize votes to be made electronically, or in any way other than in an in person meeting?

 

Find a copy of your bylaws, and refer to them. Get a copy of the right book, and refer to it: http://www.robertsrules.com/book.html

Get a copy of the "in brief" book, and read it thoroughly: http://www.robertsrules.com/inbrief.html

[Rev Ed]

The President of a small non-incorporated club has recently nominated and subsequently appointed her Mother to the role of Treasurer.  Under our club's By-Laws they now both have signing authority.  Is this correct?

 

I don't know - I have never read the By-laws of the organization.  You have to read them and see what they say.  And if the President and Treasurer are supposed to sign all cheques, then that is what happens. 

 

The background is that another individual did put their  name up for consideration and did early on in the Board vote gain a majority 4 / 7 however that changed.

 

If the other individual received a majority vote (assuming that the By-laws allow for the Board to fill vacancies - again you have to read them to see), then the other individual was elected.  How was the majority 'changed'?

[Guest adelemac]

Hi All;

 

Thank you for your thoughts and input.  At this point the President has told the membership the Board will not entertain questions or comments from membership.  Despite the members asking for the Financials that request has also been denied.  At this point I do not see any options to change the current Board.  Many of us have given up and will likely not renew our memberships.  

 

But again... thank you all.

[sMargaret]

At this point the President has told the membership the Board will not entertain questions or comments from membership.  Despite the members asking for the Financials that request has also been denied.  

 

It's unlikely that your bylaws give the President this authority. These scripts may be use:

http://nancysylvester.com/docs/Resources/articles/disagree_chair_process.html

http://nancysylvester.com/docs/Resources/articles/disagree_chair_process2.html