ACTIVE MEMBERS MEANS ALL ON THE ROSTER?

[Guest YORAM]

Our organization has  85 Active members.

When voting to accept or reject applicants for membership, our Bylaws say:   

."...Prior    to    the    next    meeting    active    members    shall    decide    by    secret    ballot  

 and    by    a    majority    vote    whether    to    accept    the    applicant    as    a    member."

In a recent vote, the results were 41 YES, 34 NO.

Did our Bylaws set the bar at  43?

Should the applicant be accepted with the 41 YES votes?

 

Thank you.

Yoram

 

[Hieu H. Huynh]

It was a majority vote.

[jstackpo]

And "Active member" is not defined in RONR, just "member".  Do your bylaws make some sort of distinction between "members" and "Active members".  If not, then it, most likely, just means "members".

[Guest Zev]

This could be a bylaws interpretation question, that is, whether there is a difference or not between all "active members" and all members present and voting. 

[Richard Brown]

I agree with the foregoing answers. It seems to me, unless the bylaws provide otherwise someplace else, that the approval of new members requires an ordinary majority vote of those members present and voting. That seems to be what occurred. This vote did achieve a majority vote.

In my opinion, based on what we have been shown, I do not believe the bylaws require 43 votes to approve as new member. That would be a majority of the entire membership. I do not see this bylaw provision as requiring the vote of a majority of the entire membership. I read it as requiring an ordinary majority vote, which would be more yes votes than no votes.

[Gary Novosielski]

There's nothing that suggests to me that anything other than an ordinary majority vote is required which, when not further qualified, means a majority of those present and voting.  So, any time the Yes votes outnumber the No votes, a majority vote has been satisfied, as  is the case in the example provided.