How do you removal a member

[Guest Jayrod145]

Hello, so as the title suggests. How can you remove a member? Does it have to go to a full vote of the membership or can the executive committee do it themselves by a vote privately?

[puzzling]

What do your bylaws say?

[Gary Novosielski]

On 7/25/2023 at 10:27 AM, Guest Jayrod145 said:

Hello, so as the title suggests. How can you remove a member? Does it have to go to a full vote of the membership or can the executive committee do it themselves by a vote privately?

If your bylaws provide for a discipline procedure, follow that.

If your bylaws are completely silent on the subject, follow Chapter XX. Disciplinary Procedures of RONR 12th edition. A lot depends on whether the alleged offence(s) occur within a meeting or outside of one.

Spoiler alert, the expulsion process winds up with a two thirds vote in a meeting of the membership.

[Guest Added the bylaws]

Here are the bylaws 

[Josh Martin]

It would appear the bylaws are silent concerning discipline or removal of members. As a result, members can be removed only by the full membership and only through the formal disciplinary procedures in Section 63 of RONR (12th ed.). 

Those rules should be reviewed in their entirety before proceeding, but a general summary of those procedures is as follows:

• At a meeting of the membership, a member would need to introduce a motion to form an investigating committee to investigate the allegations against the accused member. At this time, the motion should avoid details as much as possible. If this motion is adopted, proceed to the next step. If not, that's the end of it.
• The investigating committee would investigate the matter and eventually make its report to the membership on whether to prefer charges. If so, the recommendation would include the proposed charges and specifications and the date for a trial. If this motion is adopted, proceed to the next step. If not, that's the end of it.
• The trial would be held, which would include an opportunity for both the "managers" representing the society and the defense representing the accused, to present witnesses and make their arguments, at the conclusion of which the assembly would finally vote on the determination of guilt on the charges and specifications and, if the accused is found guilty, vote on the penalty. For expulsion, a 2/3 vote is required.

In the alternative, the society could amend the bylaws to add provisions for discipline and removal.

Edited July 25, 2023 at 05:40 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

I would only add that if an offense occurs during a membership meeting, no investigation or trial is necessary, since every member there is a witness, and action can be taken at once.

Read §61 for when this applies and how it works.