Chairs term expires but vice chair continues on the committee

[Guest Marshall Branham]

The bylaws of the church does not address how officers are elected.  The bylaws do state that church business uses Robert's Rules of Order.  The Chair of the finance committee ends in one year, while the Vice Chair's term ends the next year.  Customarily, the election of officers are held annually, but the bylaws do not address this.  Robert's Rules states that the Vice Chair becomes the Chair in the event of death or resignation of the Chair.  It does not seem to address whether elections are to be held when the a Chair must roll off the committee after being a committee member for 3 years, regardless of whether the member was an officer or not.  If the member is the Chair and rolls off the committee (does not resign but is forced off because of the bylaws) after being a member for 3 years, does the Vice Chair automatically become the Chair or will elections have to be held, as had been the custom to elect members annually.

[Guest Zev]

My suggestion is for you to continue following whatever custom your church has had. Any sudden and unexpected change may create some hard feelings even though you mean well. At a regular business meeting bring up the subject of the bylaws and move to create a bylaws review committee with the task of clarifying the election process.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

Elect a new Chair before the end of the term and you will have no vacancy, hence no succession of the Vice Chair. Alternately, if your bylaws say that the Chair serves "and/or until a successor is elected" (or words to that effect), then your Chair continues in office until the election, whenever it may be held.

[jstackpo]

And if that "and/or until..." business is unfamiliar to you, look in RONR, page 574 (and the last line on the preceeding page).

Then pass that copy of RONR on to your Bylaws Revision Committee to be sure the members look at Chapter XVIII.

[Guest Zev]

1 hour ago, Guest Who's Coming to Dinner said:

Elect a new Chair before the end of the term ...

My understanding is that there is no vacancy right now. Apparently they hold elections every year but the length of the terms are different for different offices. Consequently, they elect some officeholders in some years and other officeholders on other years. Is this correct?

[Gary Novosielski]

When the chair and vice chair term do not end simultaneously, then the end of term of the chair does not create a vacancy to which the vice chair would succeed.  Instead, it creates a need for election of a new chair.  There is nothing to prevent the vice chair from being nominated and elected to that office, but the succession would not be automatic.  If the vice chair is elected and accepts, it should, in my view, create a vacancy in the position of vice chair, which would be filled in the usual manner.