reinstatement of membership

[JeffUrsillo]

Does Roberts Rules speak to a member paying their dues after they have been dropped due to non-payment and if that makes their membership revert back to the beginning of the membership year. In clearer terms (sorry!) Membership year ends Dec. 31. members are dropped on Feb. 15. member pays dues on Feb 28. Is that member's membership considered to start back on January 1 or the date they paid Feb. 28. If a vote occurred for the organizations membership during the time between they were dropped and payed their dues again, would they be eligible to vote if the voting window was still open?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

A member has all the rights of membership. How non-payment of dues would affect the membership is up to your organization to determine.

[jstackpo]

Unless your bylaws say otherwise (such as making a late-dues-paying-member retroactively a member since January 1st), a person becomes a member at the time he/she fulfills the requirement for membership.  It doesn't matter if he/she was a member previously any time in the past, or never was a member at all.

If a vote was held sometime between the Feb 15 "drop-from-membership" date and the date the person (re)complied with all the membership requirements, he could NOT vote during that period since (bylaw provisions set aside) he was not a member then.  After his dues were paid (and any other membership requirements met) he could vote.

[jstackpo]

And as HHH points out, failure to pays dues does NOT cause a person to lose their membership, if RONR is your rule in this matter. Page 406

[JeffUrsillo]

15 hours ago, Hieu H. Huynh said:

A member has all the rights of membership. How non-payment of dues would affect the membership is up to your organization to determine.

I believe it has, by having in the Bylaws a statement that February 15 is the drop off date for unpaid memberships. I don't have my RONR handy, so I cannot check page 406, as was mentioned above.

[Richard Brown]

20 hours ago, JeffUrsillo said:

Does Roberts Rules speak to a member paying their dues after they have been dropped due to non-payment and if that makes their membership revert back to the beginning of the membership year. In clearer terms (sorry!) Membership year ends Dec. 31. members are dropped on Feb. 15. member pays dues on Feb 28. Is that member's membership considered to start back on January 1 or the date they paid Feb. 28. If a vote occurred for the organizations membership during the time between they were dropped and payed their dues again, would they be eligible to vote if the voting window was still open?

What do you mean by your final phase "if the voting window was still open"?  Was this vote taking place in a meeting or over a period of days, such as with a mail-in Vote or email vote?

Edited to add: Regardless: of any question of retroactivity, it seems to me that if the member who was dropped due to non-payment of dues pays his dues and is reinstated, if a vote is still taking place at the time of his reinstatement, he would be eligible to vote. It is up to your organization to resolve the issue of retroactive reinstatement.

Edited February 28, 2018 at 03:17 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[JeffUrsillo]

yes, I am speaking of an email vote that has a reply deadline of March 10.

Thank you for your reply, Richard...

[Josh Martin]

On 2/27/2018 at 12:58 PM, JeffUrsillo said:

Does Roberts Rules speak to a member paying their dues after they have been dropped due to non-payment and if that makes their membership revert back to the beginning of the membership year. In clearer terms (sorry!) Membership year ends Dec. 31. members are dropped on Feb. 15. member pays dues on Feb 28. Is that member's membership considered to start back on January 1 or the date they paid Feb. 28. If a vote occurred for the organizations membership during the time between they were dropped and payed their dues again, would they be eligible to vote if the voting window was still open?

This really is quite straight-forward. Members have a right to vote and non-members do not. If your bylaws provide that a member is dropped from the membership rolls as of Feb. 15th, and he does not pay his dues until Feb. 28th, then he does not have any of the rights of membership, including the right to vote, during the period where he does not have membership. After he is a member again, he has all of his rights, including the right to vote.

Unleas your bylaws provide otherwise, all that matters is whether a member is a member at the exact moment he wishes to exercise his rights. What his membership status was in the past or may be in the future is irrelevant. So in your example, the member would not be able to vote after his membership was dropped but before he paid his dues, but he would be able to vote again after paying his dues.

I am assuming that all that is required under your bylaws for a member to regain his membership is to pay his dues.