Nominations of Current Board Member for Another Position on Board

[Dan Honemann]

It has always been of interest to me to note how often it is that the initial response to a question posted in this forum is the best, and it goes downhill from there.

[Weldon Merritt]

8 hours ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

The question originally asked seems clearly to presuppose the existence of a prohibition against holding more than one office at a time since, in the absence of any such prohibition, no question at all would arise as to the need to resign to run for and be elected to another position on the board. Its as simple as that. 

I'm not so sure. I think a lot of people assume that a person cannot hold more than one office at a time when, in fact, their bylaws contain no such prohibition.

[Dan Honemann]

29 minutes ago, Weldon Merritt said:

I'm not so sure. I think a lot of people assume that a person cannot hold more than one office at a time when, in fact, their bylaws contain no such prohibition.

This may be true, but its quite beside the point.

[Weldon Merritt]

32 minutes ago, Daniel H. Honemann said:

This may be true, but its quite beside the point.

If you say so.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 6/5/2020 at 8:28 PM, Rob Elsman said:

The current member need not resign to run for another seat staggered the way you describe. If your member wins, he effectively has resigned his current seat. What you have at that point is a vacancy to be filled in the way your group's bylaws prescribe.

If, as seems to be the case, elections for each office are held individually, the OPs suggestion that if elected, nominations and election for the now vacant seat would then be in order, is a reasonable one.

...at the risk of going downhill.

Edited June 7, 2020 at 11:47 PM by Gary Novosielski
Risking altitude reduction

[Nathan Zook]

On 6/6/2020 at 11:35 AM, Lori Snow said:

We have a five person board and the bylaws indicate the board shall consist of the President, Vice President, Treasurer, Secretary, Board Member at Large.  I can see from your discussion that it may be beneficial to consider adding language in our bylaws that no person shall hold more than one office at a time.

As the responses indicate, the precise language in the bylaws is at issue.  Both as it relates to the composition (does it say that there are five members?), and to the staggering.  Absent the full relevant language, we are being a bit speculative.

If the bylaws state that there are five members on the board, that there are four officers, and that there is one board member at large (either by saying one, our by using singular language exclusively), then no person may hold two offices by the Pigeonhole Principle.

If the bylaws state that two members shall be elected in even years, and three in odd, then it has stated that there are five members.

If they state that certain offices, including the at large member, are elected in certain years, then we have a lack of clarity.  Although, if the President and Vice President are elected in the same year, I would argue that it is absurd for the President to run for Vice President as well.

Members should probably be made aware that if a sitting member is elected to a different position, that the vacancy is created AFTER the election, which might (depending again on the bylaws) mean that the board will fill the new vacancy.