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Raising Dues


Tomm

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The Board wants to raise the club dues. All the members of the Board were in agreement but didn't hold a vote because someone said that the Board can't make decisions that affect the general membership and just go ahead and raise the dues on its own, only the entire Members can vote to allow it. So an email will go out prior to the general membership meeting to provide previous notice.

Is this correct? Should the Board have voted?

Is Previous Notice required?

The Club doesn't really have a set of Bylaws, only "Rules and Regulations" of the Club and that's where the current cost of dues are specified.

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On 11/5/2019 at 5:23 PM, Tomm said:

The Board wants to raise the club dues. All the members of the Board were in agreement but didn't hold a vote because someone said that the Board can't make decisions that affect the general membership and just go ahead and raise the dues on its own, only the entire Members can vote to allow it. So an email will go out prior to the general membership meeting to provide previous notice.

Is this correct? Should the Board have voted?

Is Previous Notice required?

The Club doesn't really have a set of Bylaws, only "Rules and Regulations" of the Club and that's where the current cost of dues are specified.

Generally, the dues are included in the bylaws, and the dues are changed by amending the bylaws. The bylaws should contain the requirements for their amendment, and those requirements generally include previous notice. (If they are silent, it requires a 2/3 vote with previous notice or a vote of a majority of the entire membership without notice.) Some organizations adopt rules in their bylaws authorizing the dues to be set in a lower-level rules and might specify the requirements for changing the dues. The bylaws may only be amended by the membership unless they provide otherwise

In light of this, this statement that “The Club doesn't really have a set of Bylaws, only "Rules and Regulations" of the Club and that's where the current cost of dues are specified.” rather complicates things. Since it seems that this may well be the highest level of rules, this may well be the equivalent of bylaws for the club, and therefore the same rules would apply. So if the Rules and Regulations contain their own rules for their amendment, follow those rules, otherwise see above.

As to the statement that “the Board can't make decisions that affect the general membership and just go ahead and raise the dues on its own, only the entire Members can vote to allow it,” I suppose that depends on what these Rules and Regulations regarding the authority of your board.

Edited by Josh Martin
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On 11/5/2019 at 5:23 PM, Tomm said:

The Board wants to raise the club dues. All the members of the Board were in agreement but didn't hold a vote because someone said that the Board can't make decisions that affect the general membership and just go ahead and raise the dues on its own, only the entire Members can vote to allow it. So an email will go out prior to the general membership meeting to provide previous notice.

Is this correct? Should the Board have voted?

Is Previous Notice required?

The Club doesn't really have a set of Bylaws, only "Rules and Regulations" of the Club and that's where the current cost of dues are specified.

Tomm, in light of your quotations from the bylaws in this thread, could you clarify your statement that “The Club doesn't really have a set of Bylaws”? Or are these threads about two different organizations?

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It's a little confusing. The parent organization is a corporation that manages 8 golf courses and 7 recreation centers in an over 55 community. The "corporation" is governed by Robert's Rules, however, each individual club, (woodworking, metal shop, quilting, bocce, lawn bowling, etc) has there own set of officers and boards and there own set of Rules and Regulations. The club rules is where the current cost of membership is stated.

"Annual dues shall be determined by the club's Executive Board and approved by the membership..." 

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3 hours ago, Tomm said:

The club rules is where the current cost of membership is stated.

"Annual dues shall be determined by the club's Executive Board and approved by the membership..."

For the executive board to determine what the dues should be, they should have voted on and adopted a motion. The board can only make decisions by adopting motions.

Following that, the membership would vote on a motion to approve the dues as set by the executive board. Giving notice of this is probably a good idea.

 

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11 hours ago, Tomm said:

It's a little confusing. The parent organization is a corporation that manages 8 golf courses and 7 recreation centers in an over 55 community. The "corporation" is governed by Robert's Rules, however, each individual club, (woodworking, metal shop, quilting, bocce, lawn bowling, etc) has there own set of officers and boards and there own set of Rules and Regulations. The club rules is where the current cost of membership is stated.

"Annual dues shall be determined by the club's Executive Board and approved by the membership..." 

Then in this event, I am not sure what the disagreement is about, since the rules clearly state the procedure to use. A motion to raise the dues would have to be adopted by the club’s board and by the club’s membership.

Edited by Josh Martin
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