Majority required for ratification

[ascari]

My Organization, a professional organization responsible for , among other things, negotiating salaries for its members, has recently been in negatioations with government on a salary package. No agreement has been reached after almost 2 years of negotiations. The Board of the Organization has decided to put Government's most recent offer to a ratification vote of the membership by postal ballot. The Board has stipulated that an 80% majority would be required for ratification. Our By laws do not confer such authority to the Board to define a majority required for ratification but when challenged the Board's position is that the By-laws do not prohibit them doing so. Is there any precedence for this? Or am I right in thinking that only a Bylaw change can confer this power?

[hmtcastle]

the Board's position is that the By-laws do not prohibit them doing so.

An organization starts out with no board and a board starts out with no authority. So it's not enough for the bylaws to be silent, they must affirmatively give the board whatever authority it has.

The default authority remains with the general membership.

[Guest Guest]

My Organization, a professional organization responsible for , among other things, negotiating salaries for its members, has recently been in negatioations with government on a salary package. No agreement has been reached after almost 2 years of negotiations. The Board of the Organization has decided to put Government's most recent offer to a ratification vote of the membership by postal ballot. The Board has stipulated that an 80% majority would be required for ratification. Our By laws do not confer such authority to the Board to define a majority required for ratification but when challenged the Board's position is that the By-laws do not prohibit them doing so. Is there any precedence for this? Or am I right in thinking that only a Bylaw change can confer this power?

Since the organization is responsible for negotiating salaries, it would seem to me there would be rules and procedures defined for the various steps and alternatives in this whole pprocess. Are there none that define this?

[Gary Novosielski]

The Board has stipulated that an 80% majority would be required for ratification. Our By laws do not confer such authority to the Board to define a majority required for ratification but when challenged the Board's position is that the By-laws do not prohibit them doing so. Is there any precedence for this? Or am I right in thinking that only a Bylaw change can confer this power?

The board has no authority to infringe on the rights of the membership in this way. They bylaws don't have to prohibit them, because RONR prohibits them.

A bylaws change or special rule of order would be needed to change a voting threshold, and that would be up to the membership, not the board, to implement.