Bylaws and working around them

[Captain-Jim]

My problem is as follows:

In our by-laws it states you cannot hold an officer’s position in our volunteer organization while holding one in a different volunteer organization simultaneously (ex: president in ours and vp in another).

We removed an individual from a position 2 months ago because of that by-law. Now he is being appointed to another position that he is qualified for, but because of the above mentioned by-law he is ineligible. All others that are qualified & eligible have declined the position. The trustees have the power to appoint people to any vacant positions as needed. This is a top ranking position that really should be filled.

Can this appointment be done by the trustees?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

If someone is ineligible for office according to your bylaws, then the bylaws would have to be amended to make that person eligible.

[Atul Kapur]

The trustees do not have the authority to suspend or ignore the bylaws rule on who is eligible (the full organization doesn't have the right to suspend or ignore the bylaws either, for that matter). 

So the answer is No, your trustees cannot make this appointment, even "just this one time" and even though this position shouldn't be allowed to stay vacant.

As Mr. Huynh says, you would have to amend your bylaws if you find that they are becoming a hindrance to your association functioning. You would probably also benefit from looking at reasons why no eligible person has stepped forward.

[Gary Novosielski]

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Edited September 15, 2018 at 11:49 PM by Gary Novosielski
Because delete doesn't work.