Can a Proposed Slate of Officers have a Vacancy?

[Bruce3431]

Our organization just slated new officers and trustees for 2019-2020. We are also in the process of amending our constitution to eliminate our Financial Secretary position, combining those duties with the duties of the Treasurer. Our slate will be presented at our November 13 meeting. At the same meeting, the amendment to eliminate the F.S. position will be presented, but that amendment will not be approved until our December meeting (it will pass; simply procedural timing). Is it within the rules to present a slate without a person being nominated for Financial Secretary, anticipating the elimination of the position in the month after, or must we slate someone for that position, even if it will be eliminated in December? Thanks so much.

[Richard Brown]

16 minutes ago, Bruce3431 said:

Is it within the rules to present a slate without a person being nominated for Financial Secretary, anticipating the elimination of the position in the month after, or must we slate someone for that position, even if it will be eliminated in December? Thanks so much.

That's a tricky question and the answer depends partly on exactly what your bylaws say.  However, per RONR and probably per your bylaws the office of Financial   Secretary is an office that should be filled according to your current bylaws.  If no one is nominated for that position AND if no one receives a write in vote for that position, then one will not be elected and you will have a vacancy that should be filled asap.

I think a better course of action is to elect the rest of your officers at the November meeting, but to adopt a motion postponing the election of Financial Secretary until the December meeting.  Once the elections are the pending item of business, a motion to postpone one or more of the elections to the next meeting is in order.  In fact, all of the elections could be postponed until the December meeting, but I am not suggesting that.  It would require a majority vote to postpone one or more of the elections.  The postponement cannot be beyond your next meeting and must be within a quarterly time interval.  I suspect that December is your next meeting and that is the meeting you would postpone the election to.

Then, at the December meeting, take up the bylaw amendment first, or at least before the election for Financial Secretary.  Since bylaw amendments become effective immediately upon adoption, if the amendment is adopted the office of Financial Secretary  will have been eliminated and no longer exist.  The election of a Financial Secretary will  then become moot.

Others may have other ideas, so stay tuned.

Edited to add:  btw, if the bylaw amendment fails, then just proceed to conduct the election.

Edited November 11, 2018 at 06:04 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Richard Brown]

Bruce3431, following up on my previous post above, when do you actually conduct the elections?   November or December?  Or some other time? 

If the elections do not actually take place until the December meeting (or later), and if the bylaw amendment is adopted first, you don't have a problem.  The office  of  Financial Secretary will no longer exist and there will be no need to elect one and if one is elected, that election (to that office) will be null and void because there is no such position.

If someone gets nominated for the position in November, it will surely be with the knowledge that by the time the elections take place in December, the position  will probably have been eliminated.

Edited November 11, 2018 at 06:29 PM by Richard Brown
Added the word "probably" to the last sentence

[Bruce3431]

Hi Richard ...

Thanks for your prompt response. The slate is "presented" at the November meeting. If there are any challenges to the slate, a member must get ten "seconds" and then an election is held in December. This rarely happens in our organization. The entire slate is then voted in ... at the December meeting. The good news is, and following your advice ... the amendment eliminating the Financial Secretary position would be read at the November meeting ... and voted on at the December meeting. So ... we will follow your advice and vote on the amendment first, effectively eliminating that position and then vote for the new slate minus the position. 

Thanks again for your insight. Much appreciated!