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HI all,
Just had a shake-up at my local sportsmans club. A few people orchestrated a MAJOR re-write of our constitution and by-laws. There was one member who took this process and made it his baby. Quietly endorsing this process is our current president, and VP.
To summorize what occured, the club stood as a democtratic (501.c.3.) organization. The by-laws were re-written to penalize members who aren't as active as the people who started the ball rolling to re-write the constitution, and by laws. They ultimately included language to deny members in good standing the right to vote (on anything) for not making 4 general membership meetings a year.
Language was included to allow for certain excetions deemed "acceptable" by the man who chaired the re-write of the document. For example, if you work night turn. (his explanation...not in writing)
The President is required to apply roberts rules to all proceedings. Can a member in good standing be denied the right to vote in any circumstance?
The general membership appoved this at a general meeting by paper ballot. It was explained to them, that this didn't apply to them, just to the guys who do nothing (by their definition) for the club. After all, they come to the meetings, so this should not apply to them. So they passed it.
A list was posted at the club, according to the constitution of members who did not make their 4 meeting requirement. These members are not eligible to hold office or vote in elections. If these same members don't make 4 meetings next year, they will be ineligible to hold office, vote (on anything) or use the sporstmans club.
One of the problems is the VP made the list, and left about 50 people off of the list, including kin.
Another problem, growth is rapidly approaching the property, (the VP has stated the value to be in excess of 1 million $) and the President and VP are, in my opinion more interested in personal gain than the interests of the entire membership.
Vote control, is it legal under RRO to have this contradiction in a constitution?
Years ago I had a condo assoc. try to make their own rules. We took them to court and they lost. They had to pay all fees as well as compensate for our time. The big thing is to have a majority of the members on your side. As shag said check out Perry. My guess is you also have documents pertaining to what the board can and can't do with respect to by-laws. read them carefully. They may ( as in my case ) hold the answer.
make sure you use the specified Roberts Rules of Order...there area few of them and they differ in some texts....Roberts Rules of Order.......Roberts Rules of Order Revised and Roberts Rules of Order Newly Revised...I think there might be one more version also.....some groups will specify which version........
Robert's Rules applie to the how to's of running meeting, elections, by-law changes, motions, etc.
Did your club operate under RR prior to the new by-laws? If so the new by-laws had to be approved by 2/3 rds of the members present and the right to exclude members from voting would not apply until AFTER the new by-laws were approved.
Good points. The clubs previous by-laws required the president to conduct both BOD, and general meetings under "Roberts rule of Parlimentary Procedure". The new document has no change to this section. There is a small contingent of local members, who have become "self ordained gate keepers", and are having some success in getting the other members to believe them.... I'll try the other site, and the pro-bono area.
Thanks guys!
The Club that I am a member of we use the R.R rules. The way it is set up for us is like this.
You make out a application, and have to be sponserd by 2 members.
The next step is to go to a meeting and be recognized as a conditional member.
As a conditional you are given a card. You then have 6 months to get 6 signatures on the card. The only way to get the signatures is at a monthly meeting, at a Saturday work party, or work at a club function.
We are a gun club so working at one of the pistol,or trap shoots ,or join a commitee.
After 6 months you are brought before the members and voted on
to become a associate member. If voted in you get a key to the club.
we are a 24 hour a day club so you can enter the club any time day or night and use the indoor ranges.
Now as an Associate you do not have a vote in the club business, you have to earn that.
The next step is to become a Charter, that takes about 2 years of being a very active member, work partys, meetings, be helpful when a hand is needed. If you have been a good active member one of the Charters will write a letter to move you up to Charter.
As a Charter you can run for office, executive board, and can vote.
We have been a club for 65 years and have over 700 members.Everyone has gone through this process, all I can say is it works for us.
No expert, but I am an officer in a private club & have been involved in club politics for many years. The first thing you need to do is get a copy of the by-laws and read them carefully. Also, have copies of the minutes of all meetings as far back as possible. The Board most likely has the authority to make changes to the by-laws...however for those changes to take effect they must generally be approved by a 2/3 vote of the membership...(the exact process will be outlined in the by-laws).
You also probably have the right to get a special called meeting to discuss/vote on any issue. Your by-laws should spell out the procedure for this also. For example, you probably need a certain number of Board members in favor of a special called meeting....or a certain number of signatures on a petition.
The best thing you can do is to get as many members who feel the way you do, to attend the meetings. Anything can and does happen...sometimes because there is no one standing there at the meeting with the balls to call someone out on an issue.
It is also possible that the constitution and by-laws NEEDED to be re-written...and the person who "took it upon himself" to do so....could not get anyone else involved. Been there....done that. You will always have ten percent of the people doing ninety percent of the work. If you are not happy with the way your club is going...be one of the ten percent.
Wayward Son, You forgot to mention that at least 1/2 of the 10% are willing to give advice and council . . . but not r-e-a-l-l-y do any work.
I have been involved in volunteer organizations and clubs of one sort or the other for years. One of the orgnizations for which I serve as President recently rewrote our bylaws. It took approval from the board of directors to proceed, a committee to review the revisions, a hard working board member to do all of the grunt work, and approval of the board to accept the new bylaws. All-in-all, it went extremely well. One of the changes that I would recommend to the bylaws of the subject Sportsman club is to only allow the board of directors to vote. Members of good standing should be given the opportunity to voice their opinions. If they want to vote, become a officer in the club. I once was the president of a Home Owners association with bylaws requiring 100% agreement before we could proceed with anything. . . . . . . wanna' take any bets on how well that worked ?
Know nothing about Roberts Rules - haven't joined anyhting since High School, except this forum.
But you bring up a good question. Why is it important to have non interested members attend or vote? I think that is the first issue.
I am not sure you need to go technical with any R Rules or anything. Can't you just write-in rules to re-define a quorum? If its not defined now - hey just do it. Maybe you could have a web-site and allow voting on-line.
Cheers - If in doubt - vote for Trout
Just a few thoughts...
__________________ 1st Cav Div Air Assault Infantry RVN
-Can Do........ and .......Carry On -
Control. The property is worth in excess of 1 million dollars. There is a group that wants to run members off, and sell the place. If you split it with less people you get more $. There are some that believe "oh they'll never do that". I'm trying to make sure the total membership has a say in what happens. If it's their right, it's their choice whether or not to exercise that vote. If someone denies them the right to vote they're S.O.L.
THT sponsor
Any Roberts Rules experts out there? 
1st Cav Div Air Assault Infantry RVN
