Late notice and suspending the bylaws

[Guest Mary]

Our organization's bylaws require that the nominating committee give its report at least 4 weeks prior to the annual meeting.  It is usually distributed with the call of the meeting or is posted on the organization's website.  If this deadline is missed, must all candidates run from the floor?  Or is this rule "in the nature of a rule of order" that can be suspended with a 2/3 vote (RONR, 11th ed., p. 17, ll. 19 - 27)?  Can someone state during the annual meeting, "I move that we suspend the rules to hear the nominating committee report?"  

 

The bylaws also say that the notice of the meeting must be given at least 4 weeks prior to the meeting.  If the notice is late, does that mean the meeting is invalid?  

 

I understand it is up to our organization to interpret its own bylaws, and I am reading and rereading the section in RONR about doing so.  Still, I would like clarification on what something "in the nature of a rule of order" is and if my examples would be suspendable.  Thanks.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Edgar]

If this deadline is missed, must all candidates run from the floor?

I'd say so. But members of the nominating committee are free to make some of those nominations from the floor. So it's not such a big deal.

 

The bylaws also say that the notice of the meeting must be given at least 4 weeks prior to the meeting.  If the notice is late, does that mean the meeting is invalid?

Yes. This is a big deal.

[Josh Martin]

Our organization's bylaws require that the nominating committee give its report at least 4 weeks prior to the annual meeting.  It is usually distributed with the call of the meeting or is posted on the organization's website.  If this deadline is missed, must all candidates run from the floor?  Or is this rule "in the nature of a rule of order" that can be suspended with a 2/3 vote (RONR, 11th ed., p. 17, ll. 19 - 27)?  Can someone state during the annual meeting, "I move that we suspend the rules to hear the nominating committee report?"

 

A rule regarding nominations is in the nature of a rule of order, but some rules of order cannot be suspended. A rule requiring previous notice, for instance, cannot be suspended since it protects absentees. I don't know enough about the rule "that the nominating committee give its report at least 4 weeks prior to the annual meeting" to know whether it is of the same nature as a rule requiring previous notice, so I cannot definitively say whether it can be suspended or whether all candidates will need to be nominated from the floor, although as a practical matter I doubt it makes much difference.

 

The other issue is a much more serious problem.

 

The bylaws also say that the notice of the meeting must be given at least 4 weeks prior to the meeting.  If the notice is late, does that mean the meeting is invalid?  

 

Yes.

[Gary c Tesser]

A rule about what happens outside a meeting cannot be suspended (p. 264 - 265; I still think of it as p. 257, fondly, but ah well).  This one here may very well be a rule in the nature of a rule of order (maybe even forget about the "nature" business), since it's about how things are done; but maybe it isn't since it is not about what happens in meetings, but distinctly governs what happens before one.  Either way, though, if it protects the rights of absentees (such as, to be notified, and within a specified period of time), it could not be suspended; and I'll bet that anything that happens in violation of it is null-and-void.

 

This may apply to the report of the committee; or notice of the meeting itself; or both.

 

(I might be leaving something out, like maybe something useful.)

[Gary c Tesser]

Ya know, maybe sometimes I should just type somewhere else, like SFPA Classic.