suspension of a bylaw provision

[Guest guest]

Can an organization include in its bylaws a bylaw that allows the body to suspend a bylaw provision, (with a majority vote of the body), due to an emergency such as this pandemic and/or any other state of emergency?   

 

Second question: does RONR include any section regarding emergencies and how action can be taken during emergencies?  

[Atul Kapur]

1) Yes

2) RONR says follows laws that apply to your organization, your bylaws, and your parliamentary authority. The only thing RONR says about emergencies is that you should avoid specifying a fixed term for your officers (pages 573-4) so that they can continue in office in the event of one.

[Josh Martin]

9 hours ago, Guest guest said:

Second question: does RONR include any section regarding emergencies and how action can be taken during emergencies?  

Information on the motion to Ratify may be relevant. See RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 124-125. I would also advise taking a look at Official Interpretations 2020-1, 2020-2, and 2020-3, each of which are related to the difficulties organizations are having conducting business during the pandemic.

[Guest guest]

On 8/18/2020 at 11:45 PM, Guest guest said:

Can an organization include in its bylaws a bylaw that allows the body to suspend a bylaw provision, (with a majority vote of the body), due to an emergency such as this pandemic and/or any other state of emergency?   

 

Second question: does RONR include any section regarding emergencies and how action can be taken during emergencies?  

 

 

On 8/19/2020 at 12:48 AM, Atul Kapur said:

1) Yes

2) RONR says follows laws that apply to your organization, your bylaws, and your parliamentary authority. The only thing RONR says about emergencies is that you should avoid specifying a fixed term for your officers (pages 573-4) so that they can continue in office in the event of one.

does this also include the quorum requirement also or can this particular bylaw not be waived?

[Gary Novosielski]

I hope we're not talking about a provision that says any rule in the bylaws can  be suspended.  You should carefully consider which specific rules you want to be able to suspend, spend a lot of time time considering how that could be abused by someone with bad intent, decide what the vote threshold should be, and include that provision in that specific rule.  Rinse, repeat for other rules, if any.

The Catch-22 with quorum is that even if it's suspendible, you can't take a vote to suspend it until you have already met it.  I'd advise against allowing suspension.  If you're afraid it's too high, lower it by amending the bylaws and then use that number.  

[Atul Kapur]

I agree with Mr. Novosielski who raises an important point that clarifies my answer. My "yes" does not refer to a blanket provision on suspending any rule in the bylaws.

I also agree with his cautions regarding allowing your quorum provision to be suspended.

[Guest guest]

thank you. I think an amendment needs to take place to limit our emergency bylaw and specify which ones can can be suspended. makes sense.    

[Gary Novosielski]

I think that would take more than one amendment.  The provision making a rule suspendible should, in my view, be included with the rule itself, not with a separate list.  In that way, people looking up rules in the bylaws do not have to check two separate places for every rule they check.

Good luck with your implementation.  Check back with us as needed..

 

[Guest Helen Daniels]

If a group wants to suspend a bylaw, say related to filling a vacancy, can they vote to suspend the bylaw and say the suspension is good for six months or leave it open ended or is the suspension only good for that partcular time?

[RSW]

10 minutes ago, Guest Helen Daniels said:

If a group wants to suspend a bylaw, say related to filling a vacancy, can they vote to suspend the bylaw and say the suspension is good for six months or leave it open ended or is the suspension only good for that partcular time?

Bylaws typically can't be suspended in the usual way, with some caveats. From RONR 25:7:

Quote

Rules contained in the bylaws (or constitution) cannot be suspended—no matter how large the vote in favor of doing so or how inconvenient the rule in question may be—unless the particular rule specifically provides for its own suspension, or unless the rule properly is in the nature of a rule of order as described in 2:14.

You could amend the bylaws in order to allow for the suspension of the rule, but you'd want to be very specific about not only which rule, but the "how" and the "when", as mentioned above.

Motions to suspend the rules are intended to help business move forward at a particular meeting, not to set aside a bylaw for half a year at a time. RONR 25:3:

Quote

The object of this motion is to suspend one or more rules applicable to the assembly— such as rules contained in the parliamentary authority, special rules of order, or standing rules6—that interfere with proposed action during a meeting.

You'd be very well served reading the complete text of section 25 of RONR - lots of nuances and examples in there.

[Guest Puzzling]

1 hour ago, Guest Helen Daniels said:

If a group wants to suspend a bylaw, say related to filling a vacancy, can they vote to suspend the bylaw and say the suspension is good for six months or leave it open ended or is the suspension only good for that partcular time?

Please start a new question. On this forum we prefer new treads

The question depends on checking of provision you want to suspend.

In general you cannot suspend bylaws except if they are rules of order or the bylaws give meetings the right to suspend that provision. (See RONR for details) 

 

[Richard Brown]

50 minutes ago, Guest Puzzling said:

In general you cannot suspend bylaws except if they are rules of order. . . .

Well, close but not exactly.  You can suspend bylaw provisions  that are "in the nature of a rule of order".  RONR (12th ed.) 25:7.   They do not need to be separate rules of order.  The way you stated it can lead one to believe that in order to be suspendible the rule must be labeled as a rule of order. 

Edited April 10, 2021 at 08:34 PM by Richard Brown

[Dan Honemann]

8 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

Well, close but not exactly.  You can suspend bylaw provisions  that are "in the nature of a rule of order".  RONR (12th ed.) 25:7.   They do not need to be separate rules of order.  The way you stated it can lead one to believe that in order to be suspendible the rule must be labeled as a rule of order. 

 And in order to be suspendible, it must be a rule in the nature of a rule of order that would be suspendible if it was a special rule of order.  🙂