major bylaws revision

[loreen]

If the board proposes a major bylaws revision and calls for the vote on the total document, can a member move for a division? What percentage of voting members would be needed for a division to pass? If a division does not pass, can a member move to amend a specific article in the proposal and what percentage would be needed to pass such an amendment?

[Atul Kapur]

Not a division but a revision should be considered seriatim, that is, Article-by-Article or section-by-section. See §28 for more details. Amendments to any section can be moved (and only require a majority vote to be adopted) but you only hold one vote at the end on accepting the entire revision.

"A revision of bylaws or a lengthy amendment involving more than one section should be considered seriatim as described in 28." RONR (12th ed.) 57:6

Also see 57:5

 

[Guest Puzzling]

36 minutes ago, loreen said:

If the board proposes a major bylaws revision and calls for the vote on the total document, can a member move for a division? What percentage of voting members would be needed for a division to pass? If a division does not pass, can a member move to amend a specific article in the proposal and what percentage would be needed to pass such an amendment?

RONR has specific rules for bylaws revision. Even the board proposing the revision of the bylaws is against the rules in RONR.(it needs to be done via a committee). 

Have a look at the specific rules for bylaws revision, if any more questions remain just ask them, good luck.

(I need to check what RONR says about division of the question so will respond to that bit later)

[Richard Brown]

35 minutes ago, Guest Puzzling said:

Even the board proposing the revision of the bylaws is against the rules in RONR.(it needs to be done via a committee). 

Well, that is not completely true. Footnote 2 to section 57:5 provides that a proposed revision or substitute bylaws proposed by someone other than a committee is not improper but is not treated as a general revision and is treated instead more like individual amendments.  it is subject to different treatment.

As an aside, I wonder if the provision of section 57:5 which says that a proposed bylaw revision should be submitted by Committee authorized to do so can be suspended to permit a revision proposed by the board to be treated as a revision.  That provision in 57:5 is new to the 12th edition.

I also wonder if a revision submitted by the board itself would satisfy the requirements of 57:5 without having to suspend the rules.  It seems that if the board has the power to appoint a committee to propose a revision, then the board itself should be able to propose the revision without the need to appoint a committee. I think the intent of the new addition to 57:5 is to prevent bylaw revisions from being submitted by individual members. I would think that at a minimum the board could resolve itself into a committee of the whole to propose a bylaw revision. 
 

 

[Guest Puzzling]

3 hours ago, Richard Brown said:

I also wonder if a revision submitted by the board itself would satisfy the requirements of 57:5 without having to suspend the rules.  It seems that if the board has the power to appoint a committee to propose a revision, then the board itself should be able to propose the revision without the need to appoint a committee. I think the intent of the new addition to 57:5 is to prevent bylaw revisions from being submitted by individual members. I would think that at a minimum the board could resolve itself into a committee of the whole to propose a bylaw revision. 

Maybe the board itself may act as a comitee that is authorised to propose a bylaw revision (waiting on responses from one of the authors )  but I don't think the comitee of the whole of the board can act like it. I think that a comitee of the whole can only report to the  assembly it is made of. And so a comitee of thev whole of  the board can only report to the board itself not to the membership meeting.

But also here I can bexwrong :)