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Guest Angel

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Guest Angel - it's hard to say that one is better than the other, but your organization should be aware of the important differences between the two wordings in situations involving removal of officers.

The wording "for one term and until their successors are elected" will result in the necessity of formal disciplinary procedures for the removal of an officer before his or her term is over. In this case, you can't just vote an officer out of office since the wording guarantees one term unless you invoke those disciplinary procedures. RONR has an entire chapter devoted to such procedures (11th ed., chapter 20), which are purposely somewhat cumbersome - in order to protect both the accused's and the organization's rights. If your bylaws prescribe your own disciplinary procedures, you would need to follow those.

In contrast, the wording "for one term or until their successors are elected" allows for removal before a term is completed by a vote of the membership - a majority vote with prior notice, or a 2/3 vote or a vote of a majority of the entire membership without notice. Clearly this wording provides a simpler method for removal of an officer before a term has expired.

If you want to read RONR's own discussion of this it's on p.653 - 654.

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On 7/28/2019 at 2:05 PM, Bruce Lages said:

Guest Angel - it's hard to say that one is better than the other, but your organization should be aware of the important differences between the two wordings in situations involving removal of officers.

The wording "for one term and until their successors are elected" will result in the necessity of formal disciplinary procedures for the removal of an officer before his or her term is over. In this case, you can't just vote an officer out of office since the wording guarantees one term unless you invoke those disciplinary procedures. RONR has an entire chapter devoted to such procedures (11th ed., chapter 20), which are purposely somewhat cumbersome - in order to protect both the accused's and the organization's rights. If your bylaws prescribe your own disciplinary procedures, you would need to follow those.

In contrast, the wording "for one term or until their successors are elected" allows for removal before a term is completed by a vote of the membership - a majority vote with prior notice, or a 2/3 vote or a vote of a majority of the entire membership without notice. Clearly this wording provides a simpler method for removal of an officer before a term has expired.

If you want to read RONR's own discussion of this it's on p.653 - 654.

Thank you, this was very helpful. 

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