arbitrarily shortening term of a board member

[Guest john erhard]

May a board of a 507c non profit shorten the term of a director without that director's approval or a bylaw change?

[hmtcastle]

May a board of a 507c non profit shorten the term of a director without that director's approval or a bylaw change?

It seems highly unlikely that the bylaws would give a board that authority (RONR certainly doesn't) but I suppose anything's possible.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

May a board ... shorten the term of a director without that director's approval or a bylaw change?

Under Robert's Rules of Order, an organization is free to shorten the terms of office of any subset of its officers or its directors.

RONR (10th ed. 2000) even says that, without care, an organization may risk legislating out of office all of its sitting officers, if the organization were to amend the terms of office without an appropriate proviso.

Whether your board has such authority is a question which must be answered by reading your bylaws, since under Robert's Rules of Order, no board has any authority whatsoever, by default.

By default, the general membership is the all-powerful body in an organization, until the bylaws, constitution, or other document of governance, says otherwise.