Absentee votes and their affect on Amendments

[Guest Dave Bowman]

1. Can an organization that has adopted Roberts Rules of Order, Most Recent Edition;🤫

a)  Propose amendments to the By-Laws through email, between annual meetings (the org in question only has annual meetings) that have been so-submitted by a duly elected Executive Board?, and;

b)  Allow absentee voting on said amendments and then rule (announced by the above-mentioned Exec Bd at the emailed introduction of same) that because of absentee balloting that amendments from the floor at the annual meeting to these proposed By-Law amendment proposals shall not be in order, but would have to be submitted for consideration at the next annual meeting?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

You would have to follow the process in your bylaws for its amendment.

Absentee voting is not allowed unless your bylaws provide for it.

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with Mr. Huynh, you cannot do any of the things you asked about without authorization in the bylaws.

[Gary Novosielski]

14 hours ago, Guest Dave Bowman said:

1. Can an organization that has adopted Roberts Rules of Order, Most Recent Edition;🤫

a)  Propose amendments to the By-Laws through email, between annual meetings (the org in question only has annual meetings) that have been so-submitted by a duly elected Executive Board?, and;

b)  Allow absentee voting on said amendments and then rule (announced by the above-mentioned Exec Bd at the emailed introduction of same) that because of absentee balloting that amendments from the floor at the annual meeting to these proposed By-Law amendment proposals shall not be in order, but would have to be submitted for consideration at the next annual meeting?

No.

Unless your bylaws say otherwise, the rules in RONR prohibit doing business by email, or between meetings. The same applies to absentee balloting.  It is not typical for the Board to be initiate bylaws changes but if the Board wishes to recommend that the membership consider some, there's no rule against it.  However,the Board may not infringe upon the rights of the membership to debate, amend, and adopt (or reject) proposed bylaws amendments.  

If your bylaws authorize special meetings of the membership, one or more could be scheduled between annual meetings for the purpose of considering proposals to amend the bylaws, unless your bylaws amendment procedure prevents it.

Edited June 7, 2018 at 07:36 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Dave Bowman]

Can an organization that has adopted Roberts Rules, Newly Revised adopt a rule between meetings through its Executive Board to allow the Board to a)   Present amendments of the By-Laws to the membership through email between annual meetings despite a by-law that requires all such amendments to be submitted at a previous annual meeting for consideration at the following annual meeting and to;                                                           b). Allow absentee voting on these amendments despite no by-law or rule allowing for absentee voting and then;                                                               c). State that because of allowing absentee voting that no amendments from the floor to those published by-law amendments will be allowed at the annual meeting? 

[Gary c Tesser]

Dave, are these questions perhaps prompted by a real-life situation that you are familiar with; and do I detect a leaning on your part towards one side or the other?

I ask because it looks as if the inevitable reply to all four (including the implicit question that precedes your "a" question) is, No, of course not, and anything else is absurd.  So who can be saying anything in favour of these proposals, and what might be their rationale?  (Are they an agent provocateur perhaps?)

Or maybe I misunderstand.

(Oh, and what makes this an Advanced Discussion question?)

[Hieu H. Huynh]

I think the questions have been answered in your other thread. Perhaps you could ask any follow up questions there.

Edited to add that the threads have now been combined.

Edited June 12, 2018 at 12:32 PM by Hieu H. Huynh
Threads now combined

[Richard Brown]

8 hours ago, Dave Bowman said:

Can an organization that has adopted Roberts Rules, Newly Revised adopt a rule between meetings through its Executive Board to allow the Board to a)   Present amendments of the By-Laws to the membership through email between annual meetings despite a by-law that requires all such amendments to be submitted at a previous annual meeting for consideration at the following annual meeting and to;                                                           b). Allow absentee voting on these amendments despite no by-law or rule allowing for absentee voting and then;                                                               c). State that because of allowing absentee voting that no amendments from the floor to those published by-law amendments will be allowed at the annual meeting? 

The answer to all three questions is an unequivocal no. 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 6/7/2018 at 1:08 AM, Guest Dave Bowman said:

1. Can an organization that has adopted Roberts Rules of Order, Most Recent Edition;🤫

a)  Propose amendments to the By-Laws through email, between annual meetings (the org in question only has annual meetings) that have been so-submitted by a duly elected Executive Board?, and;

b)  Allow absentee voting on said amendments and then rule (announced by the above-mentioned Exec Bd at the emailed introduction of same) that because of absentee balloting that amendments from the floor at the annual meeting to these proposed By-Law amendment proposals shall not be in order, but would have to be submitted for consideration at the next annual meeting?

a) No.

b.1) No.

b.2) Hell no.