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voting by email for a membership club


Guest kathy

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Can a private club (not a non-profit) vote by email in NYS? It would be my understanding that a motion must be made at an actual in person meeting, and then approved, for an email vote. The club president can not just say we're going to vote by email? What do you do about club members who do not have email? Club President is trying to remove a member in good standing because of personal dislike, not any valid reason. And would an email vote have to be 100% unanimous in order to pass?

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Any authorization to vote by email would need to appear in your bylaws, or in applicable statutes. If there is such an authorization there, hopefully it also contains rules answering your questions as to how things move to a vote by email. But RONR cannot tell you much, as it prohibits voting outside of meetings unless your bylaws authorize it.

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On 9/2/2022 at 11:51 AM, Guest kathy said:

Can a private club (not a non-profit) vote by email in NYS? It would be my understanding that a motion must be made at an actual in person meeting, and then approved, for an email vote. The club president can not just say we're going to vote by email? What do you do about club members who do not have email? Club President is trying to remove a member in good standing because of personal dislike, not any valid reason. And would an email vote have to be 100% unanimous in order to pass?

I concur with Mr. Katz, although I would add that since the subject matter of this particular vote is "to remove a member in good standing," you should also check your bylaws to see what they say regarding removal of members. If your bylaws are silent regarding removal, then this procedure is certainly not proper. The procedures to remove a member in RONR are quite lengthy and are discussed in RONR (12th ed.) Section 63.

Edited by Josh Martin
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I agree completely with the comments immediately above by Josh Martin regarding the default provisions in RONR for removing a member. However, I want to emphasize that if your own bylaws contain a provision for removal of a member, the bylaw provisions will take precedence over RONR

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On 9/2/2022 at 12:51 PM, Guest kathy said:

Can a private club (not a non-profit) vote by email in NYS? It would be my understanding that a motion must be made at an actual in person meeting, and then approved, for an email vote. The club president can not just say we're going to vote by email? What do you do about club members who do not have email? Club President is trying to remove a member in good standing because of personal dislike, not any valid reason. And would an email vote have to be 100% unanimous in order to pass?

Email votes are prohibited by RONR, unless they are authorized in your bylaws.  Let's start there.  Are they?

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