Termination of a General Member

[Guest Casey Howe]

It was brought up in a General Memebrship meeting to terminate a member based on him "Causing Problems". It was brought up and voted on in one meeting without any specific references or the member even knowing about it. We have a disciplinary committee in place to handle complaints and discipline problems. It states in our bylaws that "Termination of Memebership" can be brought for inactivity based on a 6 month review, where a member has been inactive for more than 3 months. We are a Volunteer Ambulance Corp. If anybody can shed light on this please let me know. I am passing a petition to calling for a special meeting because I think this was handled improperly.

[J. J.]

First, you have to look to your bylaws before looking to RONR (p. 629-30).

Nobody here has read those bylaws, and there interpretation is beyond the scope of this forum.

Under RONR, however, it would be possible to remove someone from an organization someone whose acts "disturbed its well-being or hamper it in its work" even if the bylaws do not specifically mention it (p. 630, l. 4-7).

We can't tell you if your procedure was followed, but if the assembly felt that "causing problems" rose to the level of "disturbed its well-being or hamper it in its work (p. 630)" the bylaws would not necessarily bar disciplinary action.