By-Laws As a public document

[Guest J. Cunningham]

Are the By-laws a "private document" only available to the Board Members or is this document accessible to the  general public?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

They should be available to members of the organization.

[Josh Martin]

Are the By-laws a "private document" only available to the Board Members or is this document accessible to the  general public?

The bylaws must be available to all members of the organization (not just the board members), but nothing in RONR requires that they be available to the general public.

[Guest j. cunningham]

Mr. Martin,  our organization has "members" who are voting members and comprise the Board of Directors.  We also have committees that sometimes include non-voting members.  Should the bylaws be made available to the nonvoting committee members? ( This is a discussion that has arisen due to 21st century practices, i.e. the posting of bylaws on a website accessible by both voting and non-voting members of the organizaition.)

[jstackpo]

If what the committee(s) is(are) doing or being asked to do can be impacted by the rules in the bylaws, all the committee members should certainly have access to the bylaws.

[Josh Martin]

Mr. Martin, our organization has "members" who are voting members and comprise the Board of Directors. We also have committees that sometimes include non-voting members. Should the bylaws be made available to the nonvoting committee members? ( This is a discussion that has arisen due to 21st century practices, i.e. the posting of bylaws on a website accessible by both voting and non-voting members of the organizaition.)

So far as RONR is concerned, someone is either a member or not. If your bylaws create "non-voting members," then it will be up to your organization to interpret its own bylaws to determine what rights such members have. See RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 588-591 for some Principles of Interpretation. Personally, I don't really see any harm in giving non-voting members access to the bylaws, even if it turns out that they don't have a right to view them.

I also concur with Dr. Stackpole that if the bylaws may have any relevance to the committees' duties, then it would seem prudent to make the bylaws accessible to them, regardless of whether the committee's members are voting members of the society (or whether they are members of the society at all).

[Richard Brown]

I think I agree with the others.  You may not find this in RONR in words this plain, but I believe that all members, whether voting or non-voting, regular or associate, should be entitled to see the bylaws of the organization to which they belong.   They are (or should be) part of the secretary's records and should be available for inspection by all members unless a provision in the bylaws specifically restricts that right.  Personally, I believe they should have a right to actually be furnished a copy of the bylaws, but RONR doesn't say that.  I can't conceive of becoming or remaining a member of an organization that won't let me see the bylaws.

 

Edited to add:  It seems to me that a member cannot even know what his rights as a member are unless he has access to the bylaws.  That  seems to me to be about as fundamental as something can be and I hope the next edition of RONR will take that position. 

[Josh Martin]

I think I agree with the others.  You may not find this in RONR in words this plain, but I believe that all members, whether voting or non-voting, regular or associate, should be entitled to see the bylaws of the organization to which they belong.   They are (or should be) part of the secretary's records and should be available for inspection by all members unless a provision in the bylaws specifically restricts that right.  Personally, I believe they should have a right to actually be furnished a copy of the bylaws, but RONR doesn't say that.  I can't conceive of becoming or remaining a member of an organization that won't let me see the bylaws.

 

Edited to add:  It seems to me that a member cannot even know what his rights as a member are unless he has access to the bylaws.  That  seems to me to be about as fundamental as something can be and I hope the next edition of RONR will take that position. 

 

RONR already provides that members have a right to have access to the bylaws (RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 459-460). It is correct that RONR does not go so far as to provide that members have a right to a copy, although RONR does suggest that it is is a good policy to give members a copy (RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 14-15).

 

If your issue is that RONR does not explicitly provide that even "non-voting members" have a right to have access to the bylaws, I do not find this at all surprising, as RONR is quite clear that the term "member," as used in the text, refers to someone who is entitled to full participation in the assembly's proceedings. (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 3)

 

If there are to be any changes in the rules in this regard, I think it may be best to add a brief section to RONR and RONR In Brief (since many people do not ever read the full text) discussing how many societies provide for "non-voting members" in their bylaws, clearly explaining that RONR does not define this term and that, as a consequence, each society with such a creation should define for itself what this means. Most people seem to be under the mistaken impression that "non-voting member" is a clearly defined term with clear rules on the subject, and therefore there is no need for them to adopt their own.