New Constitution elections

[Guest Trevor]

Three different districts of our organisation are amalgamating to form a new district. They each had their own very  similar constitutions but are now adopting a new constitution.

The new constitution states that the candidate who can stand as President needs to have served as Vice president, and the person who can stand as 1st vice must have been 2nd vice. How do we determine who is able to stand.  Do the 1st Vice  and 2nd vice from the previous districts qualify. The constitution makes provision for the situation were these positions are vacant.  Do we consider the positions vacant and use this provision. 

[Hieu H. Huynh]

It is up to your organization to decide the details of the qualifications for office.

[jstackpo]

Your decision(s) can (and most probably should) be spelled out in a proviso that is adopted right along with the new combined constitution (RONR calls that single document "Bylaws") at the meeting where the new replaces the old and the merger is consummated (See page 561 for useful details.) 

The proviso can contain all sorts of "transition rules" to describe how to get from 3 to 1.  See page 597.

Adopting a proviso assures that a majority of the members (a majority, anyway) agree on the steps, rather than having something handed down from above.