Reporter wanting clarification.

[Guest Guest Reporter]

Hi, so I am a reporter and I am wondering about something that happened with my campus student government. So they created and voted on a new bylaw, but when they did so they wrote it with the same name that another bylaw had. The member of the group said that this would not replace the old bylaw but just add to the bottom of it, however, it was never written on the bylaw when voted on nor when I met with a member who use to be their VP but stepped down, he said that they wrote over the bylaw. 

So for example: 

The bylaw was labeled as Section 409.03 No. 01, and they created a new one labeled Section 409.03 No. 01. So would this be writing over it, or just adding it to the bottom. 

 

I wrote that they wrote over the bylaw but they said in their senate meeting that we reported on it wrong. I am wanting to know if I did. 

 

Thanks.

[J. J.]

It sounds like the added new words to a particular section, which is permissible.  The original text remains but new wording is added. 

There is a motion that can be made to permit re-numbering. 

[Atul Kapur]

It is quite possible that their intention was to add words to the bottom of the existing bylaws.
It is also quite possible that they inadvertantly overwrote it.

The exact wording of the motion adopted would be necessary to definitively answer the question.

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with both of my colleagues, I don’t think we on this forum can definitively answer what the intent was. It is ultimately up to this organization to interpret its own bylaws and amendments and to determine what each means. As J.J. pointed out, there are procedures that can be utilized for simple renumbering.