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valid election


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We are a small community band(<45)that is a tax exempt non-profit with Board of Directors.  in the past few years it has become difficult to get members to serve on the Board so essentially 8 or 9 of the 10 on the Board are the same every year.  We have amended the Election section of the Bylaws 2 or 3 times to make the process less cumbersome.  The Bylaws state  "No later than Sept 15 of each year dues paying members wishing to be on the primary ballot for the next years Board shall advise the Secretary they wish their names to appear on the primary ballot"   I polled the existing Board to guage their interest in remaining on the Board and all 10 said they wished to do so.  Due to Covid I was forced to poll the general membership via email to see if anyone else was interested.  I received no responses to this request.  Since no one expressed inferest it was decided the Board would remain the same by acclamation.  In November, I was informed that some new members had joined the band before the election and had some interest in serving.  These individuals were not on the master email list that I had used for polling interest.  Those people are now saying the election is void since they weren't polled as to their interest.  Where do we go from here?  New election allowing those who weren't on master list to add their names. Or, election stands until Sept of 2021?

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2 hours ago, Guest Drummer said:

We are a small community band(<45)that is a tax exempt non-profit with Board of Directors.  in the past few years it has become difficult to get members to serve on the Board so essentially 8 or 9 of the 10 on the Board are the same every year.  We have amended the Election section of the Bylaws 2 or 3 times to make the process less cumbersome.  The Bylaws state  "No later than Sept 15 of each year dues paying members wishing to be on the primary ballot for the next years Board shall advise the Secretary they wish their names to appear on the primary ballot"   I polled the existing Board to guage their interest in remaining on the Board and all 10 said they wished to do so.  Due to Covid I was forced to poll the general membership via email to see if anyone else was interested.  I received no responses to this request.  Since no one expressed inferest it was decided the Board would remain the same by acclamation.  In November, I was informed that some new members had joined the band before the election and had some interest in serving.  These individuals were not on the master email list that I had used for polling interest.  Those people are now saying the election is void since they weren't polled as to their interest.  Where do we go from here?  New election allowing those who weren't on master list to add their names. Or, election stands until Sept of 2021?

For starters, do your bylaws provide that the vote shall be by ballot? Additionally, do your bylaws permit business to be conducted by email?

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Vote shall be by ballot.  No provision in the Bylaws for write-ins on the ballot.  Ballot may be provided by email.  Ballot to be returned via US mail or in person at rehearsal. The officer responsible for ballot collection was not attending rehearsals for health reasons.

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28 minutes ago, Guest Drummer said:

Vote shall be by ballot.  No provision in the Bylaws for write-ins on the ballot.  Ballot may be provided by email.  Ballot to be returned via US mail or in person at rehearsal. The officer responsible for ballot collection was not attending rehearsals for health reasons.

Okay. If the bylaws provide for election by ballot, and do not provide an exception in the case where the election is not contested, then a ballot vote must be taken. So it was not proper to decide the Board would remain the same by acclamation, and the election must indeed be redone.

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Aside from the parliamentary issues, do you really find it necessary to have a board of 10 members for an organization with < 45 members?  Perhaps it would be easier to recruit board members (new ones especially) if you didn't need to find that many. It does seem to be an unusually large size board for your total membership, although granted that we know nothing about your organizational structure. Just thinking out loud.

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I appreciate the responses though not necessarily what the Board wanted to hear.  When I first came on the Board 20 years ago the number of members was 16.  But, then the number of members was in the high 50s and they Bylaws hadn't been touched since incorporation in 1992.  Bruce, the number on the Board is one of my issues with the Bylaws along with the convoluted election process.  Bylaws call for Pres, VP, Sec, Treas, Library, & Equipment-all others are At Large.  Suggestions on who/what position to trim if we can get agreement on amending?

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On 1/12/2021 at 6:31 PM, Guest Drummer said:

Vote shall be by ballot.  No provision in the Bylaws for write-ins on the ballot

RONR Provides that write-in candidates must be permitted on a ballot unless the bylaws specifically prohibit it. 46:31 RONR (12th Ed). 

Edited to add: see also 46:2, 54:23 and 56:26  


 

 

Edited by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph
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