General membership and Executive Committee Votes

[Guest Garth]

Good day, 

The organization that I belong to has explicitly written into their constitution and bylaws that the Executive Committee has governing and management control. The question has come up in the past, and again quite recently if the general membership has the authority to override an executive committee vote. It is included in the bylaws that we are to conduct ourselves according to Robert's Rules of Order, except where otherwise noted...

The question is can a vote of the general membership override a previous vote by the executive committee?

Thank you.

 

 

 

[Atul Kapur]

RONR says, "Except in matters placed by the bylaws exclusively under the control of the board, the society's assembly can give the board instructions which it must carry out, and can rescind or amend any action of the board if it is not too late." (RONR 11th ed., p  483, lines 9-13).

I've bolded the first part of the sentence because your bylaws seem very clear that they are giving your executive committee (equivalent to a board) exclusive control. So I would say that your general membership does not have the authority to override your executive committee.

Your recourse would be to remove the members of the executive committee and/or  elect different  members  who will listen to the general membership at the next opportunity.

Edited November 26, 2019 at 05:05 PM by Atul Kapur

[Josh Martin]

57 minutes ago, Atul Kapur said:

Your recourse would be to remove the members of the executive committee and/or  elect different  members  who will listen to the general membership at the next opportunity.

Another option would be to amend the bylaws.

[GarthVader]

Thank you gentlemen, 

It is not that they acted in ways that were at odds with the membership. It was simply a policy change that members did not approve of and incidentally voted on the floor to rescind. Some of us had questioned that procedure and therefore led me here to inquire. 

Thank you again.

 

Edited November 26, 2019 at 06:50 PM by GarthVader