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Bylaws amendment - next steps?


SGVeep

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Our organization just approved by majority vote a change to a specific part of our current bylaws. The language regarding amendments as described in our Constitution are below:

Section 3. An amendment to the Faculty Constitution is adopted when it is approved by a two-thirds vote of the ballots cast by the Faculty Association and by the President. A change to the Bylaws of the Faculty Constitution is adopted when the Faculty Association, with a two-thirds vote of the ballots cast, approves it.

However, there is no specific language about the procedure for updating portions of the bylaws once the amendments have been approved. Does this require an immediate retyping of the entire bylaws to reflect this change? If so, does this need to be signed and dated, or is the endorsement reserved for adoptions of fully revised bylaws? If not, how are the changes documented?

Thanks so much! This forum has been a godsend for our shared governance group!

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Taking things in reverse order, the minutes of the meeting at which this amendment was adopted must reflect the change in its entirety and will be memorialized that way, but if you don't update the bylaws document itself to incorporate the change, as a practical matter that's a bad idea.

No rule requires any document other than the minutes be signed (by the Secretary), and if you're updating the bylaws document to incorporate the change it's a good idea to put January 2020, or some such reference to show the last update (but that's not a rule in RONR that I've ever seen).

 

Edited by George Mervosh
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9 hours ago, SGVeep said:

Our organization just approved by majority vote a change to a specific part of our current bylaws

but you tell us that bylaw amendments (same as changes) require a 2/3 vote by ballot.

9 hours ago, SGVeep said:

The language regarding amendments as described in our Constitution are below:

Section 3. An amendment to the Faculty Constitution is adopted when it is approved by a two-thirds vote of the ballots cast by the Faculty Association and by the President. A change to the Bylaws of the Faculty Constitution is adopted when the Faculty Association, with a two-thirds vote of the ballots cast, approves it.

So did you actually properly adopt a bylaws amendment?

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16 hours ago, Atul Kapur said:

but you tell us that bylaw amendments (same as changes) require a 2/3 vote by ballot.

So did you actually properly adopt a bylaws amendment?

I had exactly the same question concern when I read in the first sentence of the question that the bylaws were amended by a majority vote. The bylaws clearly require a 2/3 vote for amendment.

Edited by Richard Brown
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55 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

I had exactly the same question concern when I read in the first sentence of the question that the bylaws were amended by a majority vote. The bylaws clearly require a 2/3 vote for amendment.

Yes, but a timely point of order would be required, so I'm not so concerned and neither is SGVeep, it seems, and it doesn't really have anything to do with his question.

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Just now, Atul Kapur said:

For the sake of argument, it may still be timely to demand a recount of the ballots.

Sure.  The purpose of the recount is to determine of the first count was accurate.  If it was, it's still too late to raise a point of order.  A recount doesn't take you back in time to when a point of order would be timely.

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Thanks so much for the inquiry! In my haste to post, I made an error in my description of the election results. It was, in fact, approved properly, by a vote that exceeded 2/3 of the ballots cast (57 votes, 46 approved and 11 not approved). This information was also reflected in the formal report submitted by our Elections Committee --- the details of which were not available at the time that I posted. 

Thanks again! This has been quite reassuring! 

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