Adopted Bylaw not implemented - 11 years later, now what?

[Guest Barbara Kerr]

A society approves/adopts a bylaw amendment through a formal vote process, but never implements the amendment, i.e., never changed the written Bylaws.  Now 11 years later, they want to simply change the written Bylaw to reflect the 2012 vote.  Is that allowed/possible? Since the society has been operating under Bylaws that were not changed for the past 11 years mustn't the society re-present the bylaw amendment and then vote again?

[Joshua Katz]

The society decided to change the bylaws. Although it has been slow to do what it should do, it should, nonetheless, do what it is obligated to do as soon as possible. In this case, that means changing the written bylaws without delay. 

Put another way, the bylaws were changed. The society has simply, to whatever extent is accurate, disregarded its own bylaws, and misinformed its members as to what they say. The solution is to stop doing that. The onus is on anyone who wishes they were never changed, to change them back.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 3/26/2023 at 5:27 PM, Guest Barbara Kerr said:

A society approves/adopts a bylaw amendment through a formal vote process, but never implements the amendment, i.e., never changed the written Bylaws.  Now 11 years later, they want to simply change the written Bylaw to reflect the 2012 vote.  Is that allowed/possible? Since the society has been operating under Bylaws that were not changed for the past 11 years mustn't the society re-present the bylaw amendment and then vote again?

Actually your society has been operating under the bylaws that were changed in 2012.  You may not have been obeying them, but they were in effect from the time they were passed.  

So yes, you should print new copies and start following them.  There's no need to vote on them again, unless you want to make additional changes.