Ammendments to By-Laws for a Voting Membership NPO

[Guest Karol Stewart]

Below is our oganization's current Article regarding how ammendments must be made through a full membership vote.  This was written well before the days of email.  Now in the digital age, we are looking to update the language; however, several of our members continue to not have email.  Our goals are to 1. Reduce the language, 2. make ammendments easier to vote upon to facilitate growth and change, and 3. decide if we need to rewrite the language so that the board may be able to make ammendments. What language do you all suggest?  I have check pages 588-591 regarding By-Laws, but I am seeking more guidance and or examples of ammendment language to make our goals feasible.

Article 12 - Amendments to the Bylaws

12.1   Changes may be proposed at a meeting of the Board. If the Board approves, the notice of proposed changes shall be mailed[KS1]  to the membership. At the next Board meeting after membership has had opportunity of at least two (2) weeks to comment, the proposed changes may be adopted by a two-thirds majority. If the membership comments result in changes in the intent of any paragraph, that paragraph shall be resubmitted to the membership for comments. Other amendments with intent unchanged may be adopted.

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 [KS1]Mail or email language

 

Thanks,

Karol

[Chris Harrison]

I'm always partial to the language in Article IX of the sample Bylaws (page 588).  Keep it short and simple.

[Gary Novosielski]

In my view, the amendment of Bylaws is the province of the general membership; the board should have no role.  

If it is desired to have suggested amendments reviewed, a Bylaws Committee, appointed by the membership and reporting its recommendations to the membership is a fairly common way of doing so.