Motion to amend before the previous amended constitution before ratification by higher committee

[Guest Sharon Lamb]

Can you propose a motion to amend the constitution after the body has voted yes on the amended constition but the amended constitution has yet to be ratified by the Board of Trustees? For example, can one write "Move to amend the constitution voted on (date) should the BOT ratify this amended constitution." This would mean that once the BOT voted to ratify the first version, they could immediately consider an additional amendment to it. 

[Richard Brown]

Guest Sharon we need more information. You seem to have a process where amendments to your constitution must be approved by both the board of trustees and some unnamed other body. What is this other body? Is it the general membership? The Board of Directors? A committee?

Please detail for us the process for amending your constitution as set out in your bylaws. Please provide an exact quote, such as a copy and paste, of the relevant provisions if you can do so.

 

 

 

[Joel Fish]

Hi Richard, I'm working with Sharon on this. Here is a link to our Constitution and Bylaws.

https://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_council/bylaws_and_constitution

The process, as I understand it, is that the governing body votes on amending the constitution of the governing body, and then a referendum is held by the constituents that the governing body represents. That is, the constituents vote on whether or not they approve of the governing body's vote to amend the constitution. After that, the amendment needs to be approved by a higher body (in this case a board of trustees).

In the situation in question, amendments to the constitution were passed, a referendum supported it, and they are waiting to be approved by the BoT. However, the question Sharon asked is about the process of amending the amended constitution. Specifically, can a new amendment be proposed, voted on, and a referendum held on it, with conditional language in the proposal -- namely to amend the constitution in a specified way provided the previous amendments are approved by the BoT. In essence, the question is whether or not the governing body can start the process to adjust the previous amendments prior to the completion of the last amending process (at stages outside the governing body itself). All the steps would be the same, but the language of the amendments would be conditional on the previous amendments completing the approval process at other stages.

[Guest Puzzling]

12 minutes ago, Joel Fish said:

Here is a link to our Constitution and Bylaws.

https://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_council/bylaws_and_constitution

The process, as I understand it, is that the governing body votes on amending the constitution of the governing body, and then a referendum is held by the constituents that the governing body represents. That is, the constituents vote on whether or not they approve of the governing body's vote to amend the constitution. After that, the amendment needs to be approved by a higher body (in this case a board of trustees).

In these bylaws I did not read anything about a board of trustees or even about a referendum.

Where are they mentioned?

[Joel Fish]

Sorry, I linked the Bylaws (which had a link to the Constitution at the top, but was easy to miss).  Here is the constitution:

 

https://www.umb.edu/editor_uploads/images/provost/The_Constitution_of_the_Faculty_Council.pdf

[Josh Martin]

55 minutes ago, Joel Fish said:

Hi Richard, I'm working with Sharon on this. Here is a link to our Constitution and Bylaws.

https://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_council/bylaws_and_constitution

The process, as I understand it, is that the governing body votes on amending the constitution of the governing body, and then a referendum is held by the constituents that the governing body represents. That is, the constituents vote on whether or not they approve of the governing body's vote to amend the constitution. After that, the amendment needs to be approved by a higher body (in this case a board of trustees).

In the situation in question, amendments to the constitution were passed, a referendum supported it, and they are waiting to be approved by the BoT. However, the question Sharon asked is about the process of amending the amended constitution. Specifically, can a new amendment be proposed, voted on, and a referendum held on it, with conditional language in the proposal -- namely to amend the constitution in a specified way provided the previous amendments are approved by the BoT. In essence, the question is whether or not the governing body can start the process to adjust the previous amendments prior to the completion of the last amending process (at stages outside the governing body itself). All the steps would be the same, but the language of the amendments would be conditional on the previous amendments completing the approval process at other stages.

I think this will ultimately be a question the organization will have to answer for itself, as it involves interpreting the language of the organization's own governing documents.

Personally, I see no reason why not.

[Guest Sharon]

Thank you. This was my sense too. Why couldn't you have a motion contingent on another motion being passed?!

 

[Richard Brown]

1 hour ago, Joel Fish said:

Hi Richard, I'm working with Sharon on this. Here is a link to our Constitution and Bylaws.

https://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/faculty_council/bylaws_and_constitution

The process, as I understand it, is that the governing body votes on amending the constitution of the governing body, and then a referendum is held by the constituents that the governing body represents. That is, the constituents vote on whether or not they approve of the governing body's vote to amend the constitution. After that, the amendment needs to be approved by a higher body (in this case a board of trustees).

In the situation in question, amendments to the constitution were passed, a referendum supported it, and they are waiting to be approved by the BoT. However, the question Sharon asked is about the process of amending the amended constitution. Specifically, can a new amendment be proposed, voted on, and a referendum held on it, with conditional language in the proposal -- namely to amend the constitution in a specified way provided the previous amendments are approved by the BoT. In essence, the question is whether or not the governing body can start the process to adjust the previous amendments prior to the completion of the last amending process (at stages outside the governing body itself). All the steps would be the same, but the language of the amendments would be conditional on the previous amendments completing the approval process at other stages.

Although this is ultimately a matter of the faculty/faculty council/board of trustees interpreting their own constitution and governing documents, I believe the answer to your question which I have bolded is, yes, that is possible.  The "condition" of approval of the other bylaw amendment by the Board of Trustees would (or should) be in the nature of a proviso, which is a statement to the effect that "This amendment shall become effective only if the Board of Trustees approves (or ratifies) the amendment adopted by the faculty on February 1, 2021 changing the method  of electing officers (or whatever the amendment was for)". 

For information on provisos, see sections 43:39, 54:23, 56:15 and 57:15 - 57-17 in RONR (12th ed).

[Richard Brown]

2 minutes ago, Guest Sharon said:

Thank you. This was my sense too. Why couldn't you have a motion contingent on another motion being passed?!

 

You can.  See my response immediately above in response to Josh Fish.