Transition from president to new president

[Guest lisal]

Our bylaws only say the president will serve a 1 year term with no specifics or election process. We completed the election of new officers in our November meeting. Our next board meeting is January. Always 2nd Tuesday of month. Since our bylaws are generic and vague, when would the new officers begin their terms.  Jan 1? At the Jan board meeting and the new president would open and run the meeting. What they are proposing is that the old president opens the meeting and then runs it until they have completed everything they consider old business and then the new president takes over. This basically means the outgoing president is running this first meeting since the elections. Please advise as I am the new incoming president and basically not able to run the new meeting since there is no bylaw to refer to and this is just what was done last year

[J. J.]

If the bylaws do not specify a date, the president begins his term when elected. 

[Weldon Merritt]

If your bylaws don't provide foe a specific c time at which the new officers take office (such as "at the close of the meeting at which they are elected") then they take office immediately upon election. So you are the president, and have been since your election. So you should convene and preside at the coming meeting.

As an aside, although not directly related to your question, there is no such category as "old business" in RONR. There is a category for "Unfinished Business and General Orders," wit7h every specific rules about how something becomes ither unfinished business or a general order. But when there is a periodic replacement t of members (i.e., and election), no business is carried over to the next meeting, so you shouldn't have any unfinished business or general orders anyway.

[Richard Brown]

For more information on the standard order of business in general and unfinished business and general orders in particular, see sections 41:5 and 41:21-26 in RONR (12th ed.) 

As you are a newly elected president, I strongly encourage you to get a copy of either RONR (Robert’s Rules of order newly revised, 12th edition) or RONR In Brief. Both are available in bookstores, from Amazon, and from the NAP (National Association of parliamentarians) bookstore.  There is more information on both books on the main pages of this website. 

Edited to add: Another book which I particularly like and find very helpful for those who are just beginning to learn about parliamentary procedure is “Roberts Rules for Dummies” by C. Alan Jennings. The current edition is the 4th edition.  It is available from Amazon and other sources.  It is not intended to be used as a parliamentary authority in place of RONR, but it is rather a book about RONR. The current 4th edition is based on the 12th edition of RONR and is very true to RONR.   It does a very good job of explaining, in layman’s terms, some of the more complex provisions of RONR. It is written in easy to understand language and contains many examples and suggestions on how to deal with various parliamentary situations. I consider those examples and suggestions to be among the most valuable features of the book.
 

Edited January 8, 2023 at 08:40 PM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph & made typographical correction

[Guest lisal]

Thank you so much. I will get copies of these books ASAP

[Gary Novosielski]

On 1/8/2023 at 4:47 AM, Guest lisal said:

Our bylaws only say the president will serve a 1 year term with no specifics or election process. We completed the election of new officers in our November meeting. Our next board meeting is January. Always 2nd Tuesday of month. Since our bylaws are generic and vague, when would the new officers begin their terms.  Jan 1? At the Jan board meeting and the new president would open and run the meeting. What they are proposing is that the old president opens the meeting and then runs it until they have completed everything they consider old business and then the new president takes over. This basically means the outgoing president is running this first meeting since the elections. Please advise as I am the new incoming president and basically not able to run the new meeting since there is no bylaw to refer to and this is just what was done last year

The rules in RONR are perfectly clear, so you do have rules to refer to:

Quote

46:47
An officer-elect takes possession of his office immediately upon his election’s becoming final, unless the bylaws or other rules specify a later time (see 56:27). If a formal installation ceremony is prescribed, failure to hold it does not affect the time at which the new officers assume office.

So you are already president.  Get a copy of RONR 12th ed. in a hurry.  It sounds like you have some loose artillery pieces in your organization.

The fact that it was done that way last year might have some weight if there were no rule on it at all, but custom gives way to written rules as soon as the discrepancy is noted.