Effective date for a motion

[Guest A concerned board member]

I have a question as to when a motion, that is approved, takes effect.  The following motion was approved on 6/1/23.  Some board members say that the motion takes effect on the approval date and some say it takes effect on the date indicated for the trial period.  This concerns the date that the past-presidents position is eliminated.

● After the two year period, the President-Elect will transition into the President’s position
● The outgoing President will act as consultant to the Executive Committee and may serve on the
Board of Directors in a chair position if one is available.
● The Communication Liaison shall assume the duties of the Nominating Committee chair
● The Executive Committee will comprise of: President, President-elect, Secretary, and Treasurer
● The Immediate Past President position will be eliminated from the Executive Committee
● This change in bylaws will be for a trial period of two terms (11/2023 to 11/2026) at
which time the Executive committee will reevaluate the term changes and report back to
the Board of Directors for permanent consideration in our bylaws.
● These bylaw changes will be in effect until the end of this trial period at which the board
of directors will reevaluate

Thank you!

[Rob Elsman]

The rule is that an amendment of the bylaws becomes operative the moment the presiding officer announces the result of the vote on its adoption, unless there is a proviso in the enacting resolution specifying some other effective date.  RONR (12th ed.) 57:15.

[J. J.]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:12 PM, Guest A concerned board member said:

This change in bylaws will be for a trial period of two terms (11/2023 to 11/2026)

It sounds like it will start on 11/23, but it has become part of the bylaws now.

[Atul Kapur]

I tend to agree with @J. J., but it is not clear from the OP what was the actual wording of the motion to make this change.

It appears that the OP is a summary of the situation, rather than the specific motion.

[Guest A concerned board member]

 

This is the motion wording:

Motion: To adopt the following changes to the Bylaws 2021 - the President-Elect and President terms
change from a one year term to a two year term. Election year for the President-Elect will be on even
numbered years.

[Bruce Lages]

Now I'm confused. If that is the original motion wording then where did all those other items listed in the original post come from? Or was the motion wording what you stated just above plus all those other items?

[Gary Novosielski]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:12 PM, Guest A concerned board member said:

I have a question as to when a motion, that is approved, takes effect.  The following motion was approved on 6/1/23.  Some board members say that the motion takes effect on the approval date and some say it takes effect on the date indicated for the trial period.  This concerns the date that the past-presidents position is eliminated.

● After the two year period, the President-Elect will transition into the President’s position
● The outgoing President will act as consultant to the Executive Committee and may serve on the
Board of Directors in a chair position if one is available.
● The Communication Liaison shall assume the duties of the Nominating Committee chair
● The Executive Committee will comprise of: President, President-elect, Secretary, and Treasurer
● The Immediate Past President position will be eliminated from the Executive Committee
● This change in bylaws will be for a trial period of two terms (11/2023 to 11/2026) at
which time the Executive committee will reevaluate the term changes and report back to
the Board of Directors for permanent consideration in our bylaws.
● These bylaw changes will be in effect until the end of this trial period at which the board
of directors will reevaluate

Thank you!

What you listed above is not a motion.  It apparently is intended to be a bylaws amendment, but is not in the proper form.  You need to specify what specific language in the bylaws is to be replaced or deleted, and the exact words that will be added or inserted in its place.

The point regarding a trial period does not belong in the bylaws, but rather as an instruction to Executive Committee to reëvaluate.  What happens between the time that the trial expires and someone finishes reëvaluating?  This is bound to cause trouble.  And it's apparently said twice.  Why?

The general rule is that unless the motion to amend the bylaws contains a proviso that it will go into effect at a later date (which this one does not) then it goes into effect if and when the chair announces the result of the vote (presuming it passed).

But the motion needs major work before it is ready to be considered.  And it may well be that it should be more than one motion, since people may favor one change and not others.

Edited to add:  

Ah I see it was already approved.  Well in that case the Past President position ceased to exist on June 1st.  The rest of it, your assembly will need to figure out what it means.

Edited July 22, 2023 at 08:19 PM by Gary Novosielski
addition

[Guest A concerned board member]

Thank you all for tour input.  You have helped me to understand this better.

[Atul Kapur]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:53 PM, Guest A concerned board member said:

 

This is the motion wording:

Motion: To adopt the following changes to the Bylaws 2021 - the President-Elect and President terms
change from a one year term to a two year term. Election year for the President-Elect will be on even
numbered years.

Where is the motion that eliminates the past-president position from the executive committee? This motion doesn't mention that at all.

[Gary Novosielski]

On 7/22/2023 at 2:53 PM, Guest A concerned board member said:

 

This is the motion wording:

Motion: To adopt the following changes to the Bylaws 2021 - the President-Elect and President terms
change from a one year term to a two year term. Election year for the President-Elect will be on even
numbered years.

Now you might see what I mean: These lines are a description of what changes should be made to the bylaws, but they do not say what those changes are.

In a properly formed motion, there will be no doubt exactly which words, letters, and punctuation marks that were in the former bylaws will no longer be there, and exactly what words, letters, and punctuation marks that are not there now will be there when and if the amendment is adopted.

(See RONR (12th ed.) §12. AMEND)

 Oh, and there's nothing there about any trial period, effective date, Past President, Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, or Communications Liaison. 

Edited July 22, 2023 at 11:35 PM by Gary Novosielski

[Rob Elsman]

Since the situation appears to be the amendment of previously adopted bylaws, what is said in RONR (12th ed.) §12 does not apply; rather, the rules in RONR (12th ed.) §35 are the applicable rules. The motion is an incidental main motion, not a subsidiary motion.

[Gary Novosielski]

Yes, the rules in §35 certainly are are applicable, but they contain no description of the three forms of amendment as they apply to words or paragraphs of the text being amended, yet the examples in §35 demonstrate that these forms do apply.  It is assumed that the reader is familiar with these forms, detailed in §12, which is the only place these details appear.  Thus, to say that §12 does not apply is something of an overstatement.

In the context of giving advice on how to word (even) a constitutional amendment, §12 is the more valuable resource, it seems to me.

[Rob Elsman]

No, one ought not go fumbling around in §12.  There are general aspects of §10 (e.g., the crafting of a resolution) that apply, but the famous types of the subsidiary motion, Amend, are not applicable.

Edited July 23, 2023 at 01:44 AM by Rob Elsman