Emergency Powers and Bylaws structure

[AFS1970]

Our fire department has two sets of officers, an executive board which runs the corporate affairs and a service board which runs the fire & EMS operations. There has been much discussion on emergency powers during the pandemic. The problem is that we have an existing bylaw section under the powers of the service board that gives them one specific power. As we are nearing the end of a bylaws revision process this is the best time to address such things. However I have a question on where to include them as some duties would fall under the executive board. After much searching online, I have come up with two options but am not sure which one is better. 

Option 1 would be to leave the service board section where it is, possibly with some expansion and add an additional section under the executive board that includes their powers.

Option 2 would be to create a new article for all emergency powers and include sections for both boards, moving the service board section into this new article. 

I know this is not specifically a RONR question, but as this forum deals with such issues, I value to advice of the members here.

[J. J.]

Either would be acceptable. 

 

[Josh Martin]

50 minutes ago, AFS1970 said:

Our fire department has two sets of officers, an executive board which runs the corporate affairs and a service board which runs the fire & EMS operations. There has been much discussion on emergency powers during the pandemic. The problem is that we have an existing bylaw section under the powers of the service board that gives them one specific power. As we are nearing the end of a bylaws revision process this is the best time to address such things. However I have a question on where to include them as some duties would fall under the executive board. After much searching online, I have come up with two options but am not sure which one is better. 

Option 1 would be to leave the service board section where it is, possibly with some expansion and add an additional section under the executive board that includes their powers.

Option 2 would be to create a new article for all emergency powers and include sections for both boards, moving the service board section into this new article. 

I know this is not specifically a RONR question, but as this forum deals with such issues, I value to advice of the members here.

I think this is purely a stylistic/usability issue. So I would suggest that you (and other members of the society working on this issue) put yourselves in the shoes of a member who is looking for an answer to the question "What emergency powers does the service board (or executive board) have?" Where would you be most likely to look for an answer to that question? That's where you should put it.

Personally, I would be more concerned that (wherever the clause(s) are placed), the rules explain specifically what emergency powers these bodies have and what vote (and other procedures) are required to use these powers. We tend to get a lot of organizations which just put in their bylaws something to the effect of "The board has emergency powers in an emergency," and then that leads to a lot of questions when the time comes to actually use those powers.

[AFS1970]

On 7/12/2020 at 4:29 PM, Josh Martin said:

Personally, I would be more concerned that (wherever the clause(s) are placed), the rules explain specifically what emergency powers these bodies have and what vote (and other procedures) are required to use these powers. We tend to get a lot of organizations which just put in their bylaws something to the effect of "The board has emergency powers in an emergency," and then that leads to a lot of questions when the time comes to actually use those powers.

The specific powers will be listed, as will be the way an emergency is declared. One thing that was interesting was that many of the empowering legislations allowed for a very broad interpretation of emergency. I think I have come up with one that keeps the historical spirit of the existing section and still allow for some measure of control to keep the boards from running rampant. 

This has been a fairly hard project to research. Mostly because of the ongoing political debate over presidential emergency powers so that clutters up the google search results. Then most link lead me to state statutes, including my own state, which empower companies to enact emergency rules. However finding example of powers like this is rare. We are lucky in that we know what we want to allow and what we want to limit. 

I am suggesting that we make this its own article both for clarity and as you suggested to make it easy to find. I am now at the point of putting together the wording then trying to make it as simple as possible. There are a couple of items that could be combined into single sections but could also stay separate. So I think I will bring both ideas to the committee.