director excluded ftom meeting 're investigation committee

[Guest Terrier]

I am on the board of directors of a club . A letter came into the club accusing me of false accusations . This person has a personal vendetta against me. The club had meeting excluding me discussing the letter . Email discussions continued they sent me a copy and they decided to set up an investigating commity . Can they have secret meeting and omit a directer . And vote on what to do while keeping it away form one of the club directors .

[jstackpo]

Are they following - to the letter - the procedures spelled out in Chapter 20?

They do allow for the suspension of your membership rights provided certain steps are formally taken.

[Transpower]

Chapter XX in RONR discusses disciplinary procedures.  Please study it carefully.  p. 656, ll. 1-6:  "A member or officer has the right that allegations against his good name shall not be made except by charges brought on reasonable ground.  If thus accused,he has the right to due process--that is, to be informed of the charge and given time to prepare his defense, to appear and defend himself and to be fairly treated."  

[Richard Brown]

Terrier, I agree with the opinions offered by Transpower and Dr. Stackpole, but want to elaborate, ask a couple of questions, and issue a couple of caveats.

 

The first caveat is that we are assuming that your organization has adopted the current edition of RONR (Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 11th edition) (the one and only current edition) as your parliamentary authority.  Has it?  The second caveat is that if your bylaws contain provisions on discipline or removal from office or expulsion of members, those provisions trump the provisions in RONR.  The third caveat is that the disciplinary procedures in RONR were rather extensively revised in the 11th edition, which is not available on line.  It is 716 pages and is available only in print and on CD-rom.   Anything you find on line is NOT current. 

 

So, has your organization adopted the current edition of RONR as its parliamentary authority?   And do your bylaws contain any provisions re discipline, removal from office or expulsion of members?   Study your bylaws carefully for the answers to those questions.  

 

As Dr. Stackpole pointed out, your rights as a member and/or an officer can be suspended, but only by the organization following pretty strict procedures.  Unless and until that happens, you are entitled to be notified of and to attend and participate in all meetings of the organization and the Board of Directors.  However, the other members are free to talk, email and even meet privately among themselves to  discuss your situation as long as it is not an official meeting of the organization or its board of directors.

 

Lastly, even if your organization has not adopted RONR as its parliamentary authority and has nothing in its bylaws about discipline, the procedures set out in Chapter XX of RONR 11th edition are procedures which it would be wise for any organization to follow when it comes to  disciplinary matters.  At a minimum, any disciplinary proceeding should afford the accused fundamental due process, i.e., as Transponder pointed out in his quote from RONR, ". . . to be informed of the charge and given time to prepare his defense, to appear and defend himself and to be fairly treated."

[Edgar Guest]

 . . . as Transponder pointed out . . .

 

Autocorrect?

[Richard Brown]

Autocorrect?

 

LOL!!!!  Either that or my former days as a pilot.   Old habits die hard.  :-)

[Guest Fred]

I read this with interest as I am currently faced with a similar situation, only I am not one being removed--but the president who needs to take action, and I have no personal vendettas. I only want what is best for the club.

 

The difference is, that the executive director in question is a paid position as an independent contractor. He is also a member of the club and of its executive committee (as a non voting participant).

 

Are the rules more lenient on the services of a contractor than removal of an elected position.

 

Further, our bylaws have no provision for either the hiring or termination of any professional services, but it does have a job description for a director. There is also a contract from several years ago that has neither been updated or provides for timely review. it was signed by the then president, who no longer serves in any capacity.

 

Any advice on how to proceed?  Thank you. 

[Edgar Guest]

Any advice on how to proceed?

You could post your question as a new topic. This forum works best that way.

 

That said . . .

 

Are the rules more lenient on the services of a contractor than removal of an elected position.

RONR-Land is divided between members and non-members. It has little, if anything, to say about employees or independent contractors (which is more of a labor law issue). Don't be confused by the number of hats a person may wear (e.g. member, officer, contractor). Deal with one hat at a time.

[Guest Zev]

I am on the board of directors of a club . A letter came into the club accusing me of false accusations . This person has a personal vendetta against me. The club had meeting excluding me discussing the letter . Email discussions continued they sent me a copy and they decided to set up an investigating commity . Can they have secret meeting and omit a directer . And vote on what to do while keeping it away form one of the club directors .

What the previous responders say about disciplinary procedures remains true if what we are talking about is a business meeting of the club rather than just "a meeting." The other people can meet at a local bar or someone's home and discuss whatever they want and no one can do anything about it. What they cannot do, however, is hold an official business meeting of the organization and exclude another person under the excuse that the subject matter involves them. A person can be excluded from a meeting, however, it must be as the result of disciplinary measures, as previously mentioned.

 

If an organization has entered into a contract with someone then this is a legal question we cannot answer. Please consult an attorney. Whatever advice he gives will probably, and I say probably, result in the organization dealing with this subject via Rescind or Amend Something Previously Adopted. But this is only a guess.

 

The removal of members or directors is dealt with according to what your bylaws say about disciplinary procedures.

 

Did I miss anything this time? Did I get this right?

[Edgar Guest]

What the previous responders say about disciplinary procedures remains true if what we are talking about is a business meeting of the club rather than just "a meeting."

 

Did I miss anything this time? Did I get this right?

 

Instead of distinguishing between "a business meeting" and "a meeting", it might be better to distinguish between a meeting (as RONR defines the term) and a casual gathering of members. Using the "m-word" to refer to the latter can be confusing.

[Josh Martin]

I read this with interest as I am currently faced with a similar situation, only I am not one being removed--but the president who needs to take action, and I have no personal vendettas. I only want what is best for the club.

 

The difference is, that the executive director in question is a paid position as an independent contractor. He is also a member of the club and of its executive committee (as a non voting participant).

 

Are the rules more lenient on the services of a contractor than removal of an elected position.

 

Further, our bylaws have no provision for either the hiring or termination of any professional services, but it does have a job description for a director. There is also a contract from several years ago that has neither been updated or provides for timely review. it was signed by the then president, who no longer serves in any capacity.

 

Any advice on how to proceed?  Thank you. 

 

The rules in RONR are more lenient for an employee or contractor than for an elected officer. So far as RONR is concerned, an employee may be removed by a main motion to fire the employee or contractor, and a majority vote is sufficient.

 

With that said, however, it is quite possible (even likely, given that there is a signed contract) that there are other issues involved here. The contract itself may have provisions on this subject, and/or there may be applicable laws which have bearing on this subject.