Voting on Board of Directors

[Guest Vision]

Our non-profit will be voting on 5 Class A Directors who will serve a two-year term and 2 Class B Directors who will complete one remaining year of vacant terms. Typically the voting is staggered from year to year.

The proposal on the table is to have all of the candidates voted upon and the top 5 candidates will fill the two-year terms and the top two candidates coming in after the 5 will get the one year spots.  

Since our bylaws speak to the staggered voting can we conduct the combine voting and be in adherence to RobertsRules.

 

 

 

 

[Atul Kapur]

With two important caveats, this is in order. This situation is explicitly mentioned in RONR (12th ed.):

Quote

46:34 If the multiple positions have varying terms (as may happen when terms are staggered or there is an election to fill the remainder of an unexpired term) and the differing term lengths have not been assigned different sections of the ballot, the longer terms are allocated among those receiving a majority vote in the order in which they obtain greater numbers of votes. If there is a tie, the tied candidates may agree which of them will take a longer term; if they do not agree, the question is put to a vote on the next ballot.

I have bolded one of the important caveats. To be elected, each candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast. If fewer than 7 receive a majority, then the ones who have are declared elected (filling the two-year term positions first) and you conduct another round of balloting for the remaining positions.

The second is that this assumes that the positions are otherwise identical except for the term. I mention this because you call them "Class A" and "Class B." If Class A and Class B have any differences other than the term (eg: in authority, voting weight, etc) then the two classes should be voted on by separate ballots or two separate sections of the same ballot paper.