By-Law Amendment

[wfd086]

A By-Law amendment was submitted in our organization to change quite a few things.  I have attached the text of the amendment that was presented.  An amendment requires a 3/4 majority per our By-Laws.  The only thing that I believe most of us will agree on is the change of the meeting time from 7:30 pm to 7:00 pm.  Is there a way to strip everything else out of it and keep just the time change?

Cyclone Proposed ByLaw Changes (Summary) - v1.1.docx

[Josh Martin]

37 minutes ago, wfd086 said:

A By-Law amendment was submitted in our organization to change quite a few things.  I have attached the text of the amendment that was presented.  An amendment requires a 3/4 majority per our By-Laws.  The only thing that I believe most of us will agree on is the change of the meeting time from 7:30 pm to 7:00 pm.  Is there a way to strip everything else out of it and keep just the time change?

Cyclone Proposed ByLaw Changes (Summary) - v1.1.docx 25.89 kB · 0 downloads

I would first note that the attached document actually includes four separate amendments, which will each need to be moved and voted on separately. Secondly, proposed amendments to the bylaws may be amended so long as the amendment is within the scope of the notice. An amendment which does less than what was originally proposed is certainly within the scope of notice. So in order to "strip everything else out of it and keep just the time change," I would follow these steps.

1.) While Bylaw Amendment #1 is pending, make an amendment to change the bylaw amendment to change only the time (and not the dates).

2.) Adopt the amendment to Bylaw Amendment #1.

3.) Adopt Bylaw Amendment #1, as amended.

4.) Defeat Bylaw Amendments #2-#4.

[Atul Kapur]

1 hour ago, wfd086 said:

An amendment requires a 3/4 majority per our By-Laws.

I agree with Mr. Martin's analysis.

I would just note that the document you attached says that bylaws amendments require a vote of 3/4 of the members present. So abstentions have the same effect as a negative vote.

eg: if 20 are present, then 15 votes are required to adopt. A vote of 14-0 with six abstaining would not adopt the amendment.

[wfd086]

So what we ended up doing was defeating all 4 amendments and submitting a new amendment to just change the time of the meeting.  In order to adopt a By-Law amendment a motion to adopt with a second is required to proceed with a vote unless they were submitted by a committee, correct?  After the 1st amendment was defeated there was no motion or second to move forward with the other 3.  Was that done correctly?  I know we had always done amendments incorrectly in the past where they were just submitted and voted on after being read three times.

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, wfd086 said:

So what we ended up doing was defeating all 4 amendments and submitting a new amendment to just change the time of the meeting.

Okay.

2 hours ago, wfd086 said:

In order to adopt a By-Law amendment a motion to adopt with a second is required to proceed with a vote unless they were submitted by a committee, correct? 

Yes.

2 hours ago, wfd086 said:

After the 1st amendment was defeated there was no motion or second to move forward with the other 3.  Was that done correctly? 

Yes.