Treasurer stepping down

[Guest jackie]

Our Treasurer of 3 months has decided to step down, it just wasn't working out (i.e., no communication, not handling money or making deposits directly, rather handing this over to a parent, not a board member, just a parent of our school and PTO Presidents were confronted by other concerning parents of "inappropriate money handling") PTO presidents had to take immediate action and hence our Treasurer has stepped down, deciding they did "nothing wrong" and they saw it as "delegation" There were events where the Treasurer would have a parent, not a board member, take the money, count it, make the deposit and p/u the deposit slip from this parent, never even coming into contact with the events money at all. Our By-Laws state: "Vacancies inn elective office, other than that of Chairperson, shall be filled by members of the Executive Committee, subject to the approval of the regular membership at the follwoing regular meeting". We are taking this as, our executive committee will find a new treasurer, and have them voted in at our next scheduled pto meeting next month, is this correct? do we need to notify the parents of any kind of "special election"?

thanks

[Rob Elsman]

Our Treasurer of 3 months has decided to step down, it just wasn't working out (i.e., no communication, not handling money or making deposits directly, rather handing this over to a parent, not a board member, just a parent of our school and PTO Presidents were confronted by other concerning parents of "inappropriate money handling") PTO presidents had to take immediate action and hence our Treasurer has stepped down, deciding they did "nothing wrong" and they saw it as "delegation" There were events where the Treasurer would have a parent, not a board member, take the money, count it, make the deposit and p/u the deposit slip from this parent, never even coming into contact with the events money at all. Our By-Laws state: "Vacancies inn elective office, other than that of Chairperson, shall be filled by members of the Executive Committee, subject to the approval of the regular membership at the follwoing regular meeting". We are taking this as, our executive committee will find a new treasurer, and have them voted in at our next scheduled pto meeting next month, is this correct? do we need to notify the parents of any kind of "special election"?

thanks

Whatever the bylaw prescribes is what you will do.

[Trina]

Our Treasurer of 3 months has decided to step down, it just wasn't working out (i.e., no communication, not handling money or making deposits directly, rather handing this over to a parent, not a board member, just a parent of our school and PTO Presidents were confronted by other concerning parents of "inappropriate money handling") PTO presidents had to take immediate action and hence our Treasurer has stepped down, deciding they did "nothing wrong" and they saw it as "delegation" There were events where the Treasurer would have a parent, not a board member, take the money, count it, make the deposit and p/u the deposit slip from this parent, never even coming into contact with the events money at all. Our By-Laws state: "Vacancies inn elective office, other than that of Chairperson, shall be filled by members of the Executive Committee, subject to the approval of the regular membership at the follwoing regular meeting". We are taking this as, our executive committee will find a new treasurer, and have them voted in at our next scheduled pto meeting next month, is this correct? do we need to notify the parents of any kind of "special election"?

thanks

Interpretation of the bylaws is up to your organization. RONR provides some principles of bylaws interpretation on pp. 570-573.

That being said, if something is 'subject to approval', it seems clear that it's also subject to potential disapproval. If you provide notice to the membership that the vacant position of treasurer is to be filled (in the manner described in the bylaws), then (in the case of disapproval), the organization would be all set to go ahead and fill the position by election, should that prove necessary. If no election proves necessary, I don't see any harm in having provided the notice to the membership. RONR does require that notice be given in the case of a mid-term or special election, so it would be improper to conduct an election without notice.

As for the exact form the 'approval' process would take, I think that's where you need to do your own interpreting. A normal election does not allow yes/no votes on a proposed candidate -- you can only vote against a candidate by voting for a different one. The 'subject to approval' language, however, seems to mean something different than an election.

Vacancies inn elective office, other than that of Chairperson, shall be filled by members of the Executive Committee...

This is kind of weird -- why 'members of the EC' rather than just 'the EC' -- one wonders what the writers of the bylaws had in mind, if anything.

[Josh Martin]

This is kind of weird -- why 'members of the EC' rather than just 'the EC' -- one wonders what the writers of the bylaws had in mind, if anything.

I've often seen language such as this for filling vacancies (usually with the word "remaining" before members). I believe it is typically included due to a misunderstanding of how vacancies affect the quorum.

[Gary Novosielski]

This is kind of weird -- why 'members of the EC' rather than just 'the EC' -- one wonders what the writers of the bylaws had in mind, if anything.

The first time I read it I thought it meant that the person who actually filled the vacancy had to be a member of the executive committee. I also thought that very weird, but it wouldn't be the weirdest bylaw we ever saw.

Of course depending on the structure of the organization, that might create a cascading torrent of vacancies, so I'm not sure what it means any more. If it's about decision making, it's even stranger, since decisions get made by the body as a whole, not by individual members.