Past practice in amending bylaws

[Guest Neil]

Our organization had a past practice where some bylaw amendments were sent out to the general membership for approval.  This was last applied in 2006.  In 2012 the bylaws were overhauled stating that the bylaws were amendable by a 2/3 vote of the assembly and that is the only option.  Is past practice therefore out of order since the bylaws were completely overhauled?

[Richard Brown]

16 minutes ago, Guest Neil said:

Our organization had a past practice where some bylaw amendments were sent out to the general membership for approval.  This was last applied in 2006.  In 2012 the bylaws were overhauled stating that the bylaws were amendable by a 2/3 vote of the assembly and that is the only option.  Is past practice therefore out of order since the bylaws were completely overhauled?

Yes. Also, for what it's worth, I suspect that your past practice was improper, but without knowing what the bylaws said then I cannot know for sure.

Before they were amended, did the bylaws permit voting by mail or email?

Edited February 19, 2018 at 09:23 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Guest Neil]

Richard, I appreciate the feedback, and you raise a good point.  Were our procedures in 2006 followed properly or improperly?  In 2006 the bylaws did not permit voting by mail or e-mail nor by a general vote.  When I reviewed the 2006 edition of the bylaws, it only states that the representative assembly of our organization can vote to amend the bylaws by a 2/3 vote.  There are no other stated provisions for amending the bylaws.  At the time there were initiative, recall and referendum provisions in the bylaws, but those provisions do not exist anymore.  I don't know or recall if at the time it was sent out to the membership as a result of an initiative or referendum format.  At the same time, I don't believe it was sent out to the membership like that in 2006. 

[Joshua Katz]

3 hours ago, Guest Neil said:

Our organization had a past practice where some bylaw amendments were sent out to the general membership for approval.

 

1 hour ago, Guest Neil said:

Were our procedures in 2006 followed properly or improperly?  In 2006 the bylaws did not permit voting by mail or e-mail nor by a general vote.  When I reviewed the 2006 edition of the bylaws, it only states that the representative assembly of our organization can vote to amend the bylaws by a 2/3 vote. 

Then no, unless there were some factors we're not aware of, such as an applicable procedural statute.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

5 hours ago, Guest Neil said:

When I reviewed the 2006 edition of the bylaws, it only states that the representative assembly of our organization can vote to amend the bylaws by a 2/3 vote.  There are no other stated provisions for amending the bylaws.

Then the amendments adopted by the general membership (assuming they are not members of the "representative assembly") are null and void and a point of order to that effect may be raised at any future time, custom notwithstanding.

[Joshua Katz]

What is the nature of the organization?

[Guest Guest Neil]

Joshua,  Thanks for the feedback.  My organization is a labor union.  I'm raising this question because our chapter president is termed out.  There was an initial attempt to amend the bylaws to extend her for an additional term.  This motion failed by a vote of 35-18 with one person abstaining.  We used Robert's Rules of Order to conduct a secret ballot on the vote, and I believe the voting process was fair with 3 people going around the room with one person having the individual initial their name on our roster sheet, a second person handing them the ballot, and the third person collecting the ballot in a box.  After the vote took place a challenge was made and presented (not following the bylaws) and our executive board held an emergency meeting.  At the executive meeting, we heard the challenge which was based on the premise that state election procedures for electing chapter officers apply to voting on a motion.  And this challenger even thinks that a 66.04% vote is also sufficient to pass a motion requiring a 2/3 vote.  Because of the challenge a person then introduced a motion to recommend our representative assembly send out the matter to the membership for a vote.  That recommendation passed although there were concerns as to whether or not the motion was in compliance with out bylaws.  So at this point, I expect to be challenging if this motion would be out of order on the basis that the past practice doesn't apply anymore because our bylaws have been completely revised.  It also appears from what I'm hearing here in the forum that the vote back in 2006 was also illegal.  I'm hoping to get a motion passed to dismiss the challenge and accept the results of the vote.  That would hopefully put an end to the whole matter.