Amending by-laws question 2

[Guest vanzoll]

To amend our by-laws it states:

ARTICLE VIII

Amendments

Section 1. – Procedure. These By-Laws may be amended by vote of the majority of the members at the annual meeting or at any special meeting duly called for that purpose, provided that notices of such proposed amendments shall be delivered in writing one or more of the following ways, hand delivery, delivery to the member’s mail box at the station, delivery by USPS mail service, delivery to the members @newburghfire.com email account at least ten (10) calendar days or conspicuously posted for 30 calendar days in multiple locations at the station, prior to the day for which the meeting is called. Proposed amendments shall be submitted in writing to the Chairman of the By-Law's Committee, if appropriate, or the President of the Board of Directors at least thirty (30) days before the date of the annual meeting or the special meeting.

Section 2. – Compliance. Any amendment to the By-Law’s affecting any substantive change in the Association shall conform to applicable provisions of the Indiana Corporations Act.

Section 3. - Amendments. All amendment changes shall be incorporated into the body of the By-laws.

During our annual meeting where these amendments will be voted on by the membership, we allow members who will not be able to attend the meeting to vote absentee. Now this is a two fold question I have , the members who use absentee vote will be voting on the proposed changes that the committee was given to them based on what was turned in 30 days prior to the meeting. 1st can at the meeting there be discussion on the proposed amendment changes that were given to the committee 30 days prior, and during the discussion can another member during that meeting make a motion to amend that amendment that was turned in 30 days previous to the committee. If so we will vote on the amended amendment and if it passes then vote on the new amendment as amended. 2nd now what do we do with the absentee votes that don't reflect the amended amendment because these people were not at the meeting so they don't know of the dicussion and change in the amendment.

I hope this is somewhat understandable.

[Chris Harrison]

<snip>

Do your bylaws specifically permit absentee voting? If they don't you can't do it (RONR pp. 408-409). If they do allow absentee voting then it will be up to you all to work out the details. However, the questions you ask are the very reason why RONR strongly discourages mixing absentee and present votes.

[Rob Elsman]

To amend our by-laws it states:

ARTICLE VIII

Amendments

Section 1. – Procedure. These By-Laws may be amended by vote of the majority of the members at the annual meeting or at any special meeting duly called for that purpose, provided that notices of such proposed amendments shall be delivered in writing one or more of the following ways, hand delivery, delivery to the member’s mail box at the station, delivery by USPS mail service, delivery to the members @newburghfire.com email account at least ten (10) calendar days or conspicuously posted for 30 calendar days in multiple locations at the station, prior to the day for which the meeting is called. Proposed amendments shall be submitted in writing to the Chairman of the By-Law's Committee, if appropriate, or the President of the Board of Directors at least thirty (30) days before the date of the annual meeting or the special meeting.

Section 2. – Compliance. Any amendment to the By-Law’s affecting any substantive change in the Association shall conform to applicable provisions of the Indiana Corporations Act.

Section 3. - Amendments. All amendment changes shall be incorporated into the body of the By-laws.

During our annual meeting where these amendments will be voted on by the membership, we allow members who will not be able to attend the meeting to vote absentee. Now this is a two fold question I have , the members who use absentee vote will be voting on the proposed changes that the committee was given to them based on what was turned in 30 days prior to the meeting. 1st can at the meeting there be discussion on the proposed amendment changes that were given to the committee 30 days prior, and during the discussion can another member during that meeting make a motion to amend that amendment that was turned in 30 days previous to the committee. If so we will vote on the amended amendment and if it passes then vote on the new amendment as amended. 2nd now what do we do with the absentee votes that don't reflect the amended amendment because these people were not at the meeting so they don't know of the dicussion and change in the amendment.

I hope this is somewhat understandable.

A society should never adopt rules that permit the counting of the votes of those who are present at a meeting with those who were absent. The very difficulties you raise are the reason. See RONR (10th ed.), p. 409, ll. 4-15.