Request to be Excused from the Duty

[Guest JDD]

Good Morning!  I could use some guidance please.  I currently serve on a board as President.  Our board has a progression plan and when you are elected secretary/treasurer you serve for two years and move up to Vice President, then President, then Past President.  Our Vice President has Requested to be Excused from the Duty and they should be the President for next year.  I am curious what the proper way to handle this.  Per our bylaws B. Vacancies in any position may be filled for the balance of the term by the Executive Board. If a Board Member position is vacated, the President shall appoint a replacement and the Executive Board must have majority vote to fulfill the remainder of eligible term.  What is being proposed by a committee of past presidents is a vote of membership which is not addressed in our bylaws as we've never encountered this before.  I've tried researching best practice for this in my copy of the Robert's Rules of Order in brief but I am not finding an answer for this specific situation.  I appreciate your expert advice and guidance.  I just want to ensure we act properly as an organization.

[Bruce Lages]

RONR does not recognize any form of a 'progression plan' such as you describe. Therefore it will not be possible to give a solution to your problem based on RONR. If you're certain that your bylaws do not provide for this type of situation, about all I can think of is that when the term of office of the 'moved-up' officers begins, you can then declare a vacancy in the office of president, and fill that position according to your vacancy-filling procedure as outlined in your bylaws. Normally, according to RONR, a vacancy in the office of president would be filled automatically by the vice president becoming president. In your case that would mean that the secretary/treasurer who progresses to vice president would then step up again and become president as soon as the new terms of office begin. However, I'm not sure that would accord with the wording of your bylaws regarding vacancies ("Vacancies in any position...[my emphasis]).

As an aside, I'm surprised that you have never encountered this situation before - it seems like you're subjecting your officers to a rather lengthy commitment to serve.

[Atul Kapur]

Stripped of the complicaitons, this is a question about how to fill a vacancy. You've paraphrased your bylaws instead of quoting exactly, so that limits how definitive the answer can be (eg: "board may" vs "president shall"). I don't see anything here that says the Board cannot defer this decision to a vote of the membership. In other words, nothing that says that this is a power exclusively reserved for the board to exercise rather than the membership meeting.

[Guest Zev]

6 hours ago, Bruce Lages said:

...all I can think of is that when the term of office of the 'moved-up' officers begins, you can then declare a vacancy in the office of president, and fill that position according to your vacancy-filling procedure as outlined in your bylaws.

I like this.

2 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

I don't see anything here that says the Board cannot defer this decision to a vote of the membership.

I like this even better. At the time the "move-up" occurs and the vacancy appears, I would throw this hot potato to the assembly and let them decide what to do with it. Besides, since its their decision, the assembly cannot accuse anyone of any hanky-panky.