Couple serving on board counting as 1 vote

[Guest Dana]

There is a married couple that is wanting to join our non-profit board together and rotate who attends meetings. Is this acceptable and if so, how would voting be done? Would they just count as one vote and whichever one was present, votes? Has anyone dealt with a similar situation? They are both very passionate about the cause of the non-profit and would be a great asset to the board.  

[Rob Elsman]

They would have to stand separately for two seats. If they both won, they would have two votes.  If one of them won a seat, only that member would have a seat, and only he would have the right to attend meetings and cast one vote.

[Josh Martin]

1 hour ago, Guest Dana said:

Is this acceptable and if so, how would voting be done?

No, this is not acceptable (unless your bylaws support this arrangement, and if they do, your bylaws would need to specify how this works). There is no method in RONR for two people to "share" a membership on a board.

I suppose the board could elect one of them and then invite the other to attend meetings. The board could even suspend the rules to permit the other person to speak in debate. Only the person who is actually the board member, however, would have the right to vote.

Alternately, you could just elect both of them as board members. If there are two seats available and the board isn't struggling to meet its quorum requirement, that arrangement should work just fine.

Edited June 12, 2020 at 01:07 AM by Josh Martin

[Rob Elsman]

This reminds me of the "one vote, one man" discussion we had on another thread the other day.