What if there are no nominees

[RebeccaT]

Hi,

I am the council president of my church and we have our annual meeting on Sunday.  There may be a bit of a dilemma in that we have an open position that the  nominating committee hasn't been able to fill and which we fear that we may not be able to fill it from the floor.

What is the proper procedure to handle this? There are a certain number of people that are required to be on council.

Thanks.  Hopefully I'm worrying about nothing but want to be prepared

[Weldon Merritt]

Hold the elections as scheduled, and include a blank for write-in votes for the position. In fact, there should be a blank for write-ins even for the positions for which you do have nominees. If someone gets a majority of the votes cast for that position (which cold be as few as a single vote if no one else gets any(, and does not decline, he or she is elected). If no one gets a majority, keep voting until someone does, or at least until it is obvious that you can't fill the position. The fact that the bylaws require a certain number of council members does not prevent the council from acting with fewer, as long as you meet any quorum requirements.

The above assumes, of course, that you bylaws don't prohibit write-in votes. If they do, then you indeed have a dilemma for which I have no advice.

[RebeccaT]

Thank you.  Yes we do have write in. spots so good there.  We have 4 positions and nominees for 3 of the 4.  If someone accepts a nomination from the floor we'll be good as we don't tend to have multiple nominees. Hopefully that happens, I'm the type of person who wants contingency plans, just in case and with our Pastor on sabbatical it all falls on me...

Thanks again as it is good to know that it is OK  to close the nominations with an open position.