Voting on reelection of board member, committee recommended to board, now member want's to resign before taking office

[Guest Juanita]

We have a board member who is up for reelection to the board. Our board year runs May 1st through April 30th. He initially agreed to be reelected. The Nominating Committee met and voted to recommend to the board this person to be reelected. Voting will take place on Thursday. We received an email yesterday that he is resigning from the board effective April 31st.

What is the simplest way for us to handle this situation. Go ahead and reelection him, then under new business state that he is resigning as of April 30th. We just need a simple, yet legal way to handle this situation. Our by-laws do not address a situation such as this.

Thank you for your assistance.

[Rob Elsman]

The electors are quite free to vote as they judge proper to choose the best-qualified person for the office. It sometimes happens that a person who wins an election decides to serve, despite having said before his election that he would not.

[Joshua Katz]

On 4/17/2024 at 8:11 AM, Guest Juanita said:

We received an email yesterday that he is resigning from the board effective April 31st.

Well then there's no problem, since that date will never come.

If he meant April 30, that's not quite true either, unless he wants to give up the remaining partial day of his current term. He seems to be saying, instead, that he doesn't intend to serve another term if elected.

What do your bylaws say about elections, though? In particular, do they rule out nominations from the floor and/or write-ins?

 

[Gary Novosielski]

On 4/17/2024 at 11:11 AM, Guest Juanita said:

We have a board member who is up for reelection to the board. Our board year runs May 1st through April 30th. He initially agreed to be reelected. The Nominating Committee met and voted to recommend to the board this person to be reelected. Voting will take place on Thursday. We received an email yesterday that he is resigning from the board effective April 31st.

What is the simplest way for us to handle this situation. Go ahead and reelection him, then under new business state that he is resigning as of April 30th. We just need a simple, yet legal way to handle this situation. Our by-laws do not address a situation such as this.

Thank you for your assistance.

There's no need to resign from a term that is coming to its natural end.  He can simply decline reëlection.

[Atul Kapur]

On 4/17/2024 at 11:11 AM, Guest Juanita said:

What is the simplest way for us to handle this situation.

The simplest is to recognize that what he has done is to withdraw as a nominee before the election. Using the word "resignation" is inaccurate and confuses matters.

RONR advises that, in this situation, you reactivate the nominating committee to come up with a replacement.

Quote

46:17 A nominating committee is automatically discharged when its report is formally presented to the assembly, although if one of the nominees withdraws before the election, the committee is revived and should meet immediately to agree upon another nomination if there is time.

If there is not enough time, then you go with what you have and also open the floor to nominations, in the hopes that they will nominate a person who will accept the position if elected.

[Josh Martin]

On 4/17/2024 at 10:11 AM, Guest Juanita said:

We have a board member who is up for reelection to the board. Our board year runs May 1st through April 30th. He initially agreed to be reelected. The Nominating Committee met and voted to recommend to the board this person to be reelected. Voting will take place on Thursday. We received an email yesterday that he is resigning from the board effective April 31st.

What is the simplest way for us to handle this situation. Go ahead and reelection him, then under new business state that he is resigning as of April 30th. We just need a simple, yet legal way to handle this situation. Our by-laws do not address a situation such as this.

So I'm not entirely clear on what the purpose of re-electing this person would be, since it seems he would be resigning immediately.

I would advise that the person withdraw from the election and you all elect someone else who actually wants to serve.

But if you for some reason do elect this person, I guess the solution you propose makes sense.