Guest lois mitchell Posted January 1, 2011 at 12:59 PM Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 at 12:59 PM There is a newly formed association in my neighborhood which I belong to and I received a rough draft copy of bylaws from which I was not in attendance due to work schedule. There is an Article titled Political Neutrality and section:Public Servants that states: "no elected or appointed official of the local township or school district shall be an officer of the Executive Committee of this association. All Executive Committee officers shall resign upon declaring candidacy for election or upon appointment to such public office". The problem that arises from this is one of the members of this association has been a long standing active member of another group that was formed and has since been renamed to this "neighborhood association". This member is an appointed official of the township in which this association is formed. She is the only original member that is from the group that was formed before the name change to association. She has been an extremely resourceful member and liasion between the association and the local government in which she is an appointed official. Per the Robert Rules of Order is the section that I listed above be adopted as a bylaw? Is there any rulings that will allow this member to continue to serve on the Executive Committee such as being grandfathered in? Thanking you in advance for your reading and findings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kim Goldsworthy Posted January 1, 2011 at 01:31 PM Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 at 01:31 PM There is a newly formed association in my neighborhood which I belong to and I received a rough draft copy of bylaws from which I was not in attendance due to work schedule.There is an Article titled Political Neutrality and section:Public Servants that states: "no elected or appointed official of the local township or school district shall be an officer of the Executive Committee of this association. All Executive Committee officers shall resign upon declaring candidacy for election or upon appointment to such public office". The problem that arises from this is one of the members of this association has been a long standing active member of another group that was formed and has since been renamed to this "neighborhood association". This member is an appointed official of the township in which this association is formed. She is the only original member that is from the group that was formed before the name change to association. She has been an extremely resourceful member and liasion between the association and the local government in which she is an appointed official. Per the Robert Rules of Order is the section that I listed above be adopted as a bylaw?Ungrammatical.What are you asking?"... Is the [text] be adopted as a bylaw?"There is nothing in Robert's Rules of Order which prevents your organization from adopting any such restriction. -- No matter how foolish or short-sighted.Is there any rulings that will allow this member to continue to serve on the Executive Committee such as being grandfathered in?No.There is no grandfathering-in, as far as Robert's Rules of Order goes.You'd have to write in such an exception into your bylaws.Q. Why adopt such a bylaw when it works contrary to your best interests? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David A Foulkes Posted January 1, 2011 at 01:53 PM Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 at 01:53 PM A confusing point for me is whether your association has actually ever adopted bylaws. Is this "rough draft copy" a copy of previously adopted bylaws? or are they amendments to the existing bylaws? or are they the "rough draft" of the first-ever bylaws that you have yet to adopt?Your bylaws can only be interpreted in their entirety, something beyond the scope of this forum. That said...... and in my opionion, if your quoted text comes from existing, adopted bylaws, then the answer would seem clear. As Mr. Goldsworthy notes, there is no grandfathering (or perhaps in the case of this woman, grandmothering) in RONR. If your bylaws prevent an "appointed official of the local township" from serving on the Executive Committee (EC), and this woman is an "appointed official of the local township", it would seem that she ought to resign from the EC. I would suspect she would continue to be an "extremely resourceful member and liaison between the association and the local government" anyway.Stay tuned for more thoughts. It's early New Years Day and the regular crowd hasn't shuffled in just yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Josh Martin Posted January 1, 2011 at 09:27 PM Report Share Posted January 1, 2011 at 09:27 PM Per the Robert Rules of Order is the section that I listed above be adopted as a bylaw?Nothing in RONR would prevent the adoption of such a rule into the Bylaws.Is there any rulings that will allow this member to continue to serve on the Executive Committee such as being grandfathered in? There is no automatic "grandfathering," but the assembly may include a proviso to that effect if it wishes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.