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Voting Rights of Inactive Members


Guest Jennifer

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If you belong to an organization and are placed on an inactive list for not meeting certain requirements and are not eligible to vote until such time as you complete the necessary requirements to be considered active and able to vote are you eligible to make motions, seconds, voice vote (general consent) etc.?

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It is up to you all to interpret your bylaws (see RONR pp. 588-591 for some principles to help with that).  However, there seems to be two major schools of thought when it comes to other classes of membership (in your organization's case "Inactive").  One is that since you have deviated from RONR's definition of a member as found on page 3 any rights of membership for that class would need to be specified in the bylaws.  The other school is all rights of membership are retained except those the bylaws remove.  Take your pick.  :)

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Thank you for the responses. Would making a motion or second be considered voting? That is the main debate. The bylaws are not specific as to what exactly it means to be considered "inactive", only states that an inactive member does not have voting rights. However, the president has been allowing these same inactive members to make motions, seconds, voice vote on minutes, treasurer's report, etc, but when it comes to voting for new executive board members the "inactive" members are not being allowed to vote. The latest we were told was that according to Presidential research of RONR inactive members can make motions or seconds and is not considered part of the voting process. This is not how I am reading the information. Just needing a little clarification.

Thank you again.

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Making and seconding motions and participating in debate are not voting.  Voting is voting.  Whether making a motion would constitute "activity" in the sense of active vs. inactive members, is up to you to determine.

 

Voting on minutes would be considered voting, except that the proper approval process for minutes does not require a vote on final approval.  There may be a need to vote on corrections if they are not unanimously agreed to, and that would be considered a vote.

 

There should be no vote on the treasurer's report, unless it is the audit report.  But if there is a vote, that's voting.

 

If your bylaws say that inactive members can't vote, then they shouldn't be voting by voice, or rising, or show of hands, or ballot or roll-call, or any other method of voting that you may invent.

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As RONR does not define requirements or consequences of being inactive/in bad standing/etc., you will need to refer to your organization's bylaws to establish what happens in this scenario. Carefully drafted bylaws will indicate the precise criteria for becoming inactive and for returning to being deemed active. They will also precisely enumerate the changes to privileges and responsibilities attached to being inactive, and distinguish them from being active and from ceasing to be a member entirely. To the extent there is an RONR answer to this, it is that members have a bundle of rights, such as the right to attend membership meetings, to make and second motions, to vote, &c., and only lose such rights as are explicitly and properly removed.

If your bylaws don't have any of this, the quick and dirty way forward is if the president denies a member a right, or grants one a right which he should not have done, a member should make a Point of Order that the rules are not being followed correctly. The president should explain his ruling and rule that the Point of Order is Well-Taken or Not Well-Taken, and two members can appeal the ruling. The appeal is ultimately determined by a majority vote, and for the purposes of that vote, whatever the president says on voting entitlement goes.

In the long run, it would be apt to either (preferably) remove the inactivity-related language from the bylaws, or define all of the things I mentioned above in the bylaws. As ever, this will require following the procedures prescribed in the said bylaws for their amendment.

I definitely don't ever want to go to Mr. Fish's meeting.

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