rescind board decision

[Guest Stephen]

Our By-laws allow members to rescind a decision of the board by a 60% vote of the membership. There is no mention of time or of whether the action has taken place. Would our By-laws prevail, and allow the members to vote to rescind a year after the decision was made?

[Josh Martin]

On 3/30/2024 at 11:30 AM, Guest Stephen said:

Our By-laws allow members to rescind a decision of the board by a 60% vote of the membership. There is no mention of time or of whether the action has taken place. Would our By-laws prevail, and allow the members to vote to rescind a year after the decision was made?

I see no reason why not, provided the action in question still has force and effect, and has not already been fully carried out.

RONR also permits the membership to rescind an action of the board and places no "time limits" on this. It seems the only difference in your bylaws in this regard is the 60% vote requirement.

[Richard Brown]

On 3/30/2024 at 11:30 AM, Guest Stephen said:

Our By-laws allow members to rescind a decision of the board by a 60% vote of the membership. There is no mention of time or of whether the action has taken place. Would our By-laws prevail, and allow the members to vote to rescind a year after the decision was made?

Yes, agreeing with Mr. Martin, I see no reason why this would not be permissible.  There is certainly no time limit for it in RONR, so long as the motion being rescinded is still in effect and has not been fully carried out

[Guest EBowmaster]

to further inquire on this topic, our Board took discipline actions against a probationary member per our department by-laws and terminated them. in a separate incident our Board took discipline actions against a regular member per our by-laws and terminated them also. both members were given the opportunity to appeal their termination. the probationary member provided a letter to the Board in the appeal process which the Board reviewed and didnt find any evidence to reverse their decision of termination.  the regular member did not engage in any appeal process. 3 months after the appeals were completed, the spouse of the probationary member (who is a regular member of our organization) made a motion at a general membership meeting to reinstate the two members stating that he "felt the terminations were uncalled for". The spouse of the terminated regular member seconded the motion. We have no ByLaws related to reinstating membership which were terminated by the Board in accordance to ByLaws which are documented.  The motion passed by a majority vote of members in attendance which was a much less head count than our full roster. The spouses had multiple meetings to reinstate the dismissals but waited multiple meetings until they knew they had a majority.  My question.. if the Board removes members from our organization's pre-existing ByLaws, can a majority membership vote at a standard meeting (not a special called meeting) overrule the expulsion? There is nothing in our ByLaws providing general membership the ability to expel members except for removing a probationary member by a 2/3rds vote.

[Atul Kapur]

Are you the same person as the OP, Guest Stephen? If not, the moderators ask that you create a new thread for you separate question. When you do, it would help if you shared the exact language in your bylaws about discipline and expulsion of members and about the powers and authority of the board generally.

[Guest EBowmaster]

No not the same person. first time to the thread, my apologies. i will create new thread and provide to give as much background as possible. thanks.