Vacancies created by election

[Guest Colleen]

A board regularly puts up someone already on the board as a candidate for an open position. If the members vote that person in, which they usually do, it creates a vacancy in their old position. The board  immediately appoints some one to that position, thereby depriving the members of the right to run for that position. The bylaws allow for board appointments but no time frame is specified. This seems like a manipulative process but there seems to be nothing in place to stop it.

 

 

[Atul Kapur]

Well, there should be an opportunity for other nominations for the original open position. That gives the assembly the opportunity to elect someone else.

 

[Guest Colleen]

Because of the pandemic, this was a mail-in ballot so there was no opportunity for additional nominees once the position opened up.

[Joshua Katz]

49 minutes ago, Guest Colleen said:

Because of the pandemic, this was a mail-in ballot so there was no opportunity for additional nominees once the position opened up.

It seems like this is the problem, rather than the board's candidate being elected. Do your rules allow for voting by mail, and do they allow for not allowing open nominations? 

[Guest Colleen]

The bylaws state "Any business required or permitted to be taken at a Membership meeting may be taken without a meeting, by means of a ballot clearly stating a Board-approved motion." The bylaws require annual elections and the State of Massachusetts disallows in-person meeting of more than 10 persons inside and 25 persons outside. This is why the mail in format is being used. Members are specifically told that no write-in votes are allowed and any ballot with a write-in vote will be discarded, eliminating the member's vote for other positions on the ballot. Any business required or permitted to be taken at a Membership meeting may be taken without a meeting, by means of a ballot clearly stating a Board-approved motion.

[Atul Kapur]

3 hours ago, Guest Colleen said:

Members are specifically told that no write-in votes are allowed and any ballot with a write-in vote will be discarded

What is the authority that supports this statement? It's definitely not RONR.

[Joshua Katz]

Well, I stand by my position that anything that went wrong was not caused by the voting in of the board's candidate.

That said, I think there is an ambiguity in the bylaws requiring the organization to interpret them, which is clearly a problem without having meetings.

12 hours ago, Guest Colleen said:

"Any business required or permitted to be taken at a Membership meeting may be taken without a meeting, by means of a ballot clearly stating a Board-approved motion."

An election is, essentially, a motion with a blank to be filled. So the question is, what is the board-approved motion?  Need the board approve each proposal to fill the blank, in which case, indeed, no write-ins are permitted? Or need the board only approve the election, in which case, if RONR is the authority, write-ins are permitted?