Another look at the April 4th Bylaw Committee Meeting - A Difference of Opinion

Personal Viewpoint

These are my personal notes, comments, and opinions from the April 4th Ad Hoc Bylaw Committee. These notes and comments are mine alone and do not reflect the opinions of the Committee. 

Anyone who has read my previous comments and opinions regarding Robert’s Rules of Order will not be surprised to read that in my opinion, they are going about this process incorrectly. 

Process

They are currently still attempting to find the best way to approach the project, which by no means is a small task, and I commend each member of the committee for their commitment especially since they meet once a week and have vast homework assignments between meetings. 

The committee is currently starting with the 2022 Bylaws and is comparing them to the March 2018 Bylaws. Their first go-around is to separate anything that is, or was a Board Policy that was placed within the Bylaws and remove it. They are also concentrating on the headings of the Articles and Sections within the Bylaws to determine whether they actually belong in the Bylaws or not. 

Is there a better way?

Here’s where I believe they’re going wrong. Someone questioned why a particular rule was in the 2022 Bylaws. It was determined that since that rule was not in the 2018 Bylaws it probably shouldn’t be in the 2022 Bylaws. 

Here’s my point; if you continue to look at the previous sets of Bylaws you’re going to find things that were in the older set but not in the newer set, and things that weren’t in the older sets but are now in a newer set! So…where does it end? Do they keep on digging deeper and deeper into the older sets of Bylaws? It seems to me they are attempting to reinvent the wheel? 

Here's My Opinion

I understand that Robert’s Rules of Order was not specified as the corporation’s parliamentary authority when it was first established, but now it is. So if the Bylaws must now comply with Robert’s Rules then the committee should first read the section of Robert’s Rules that explains the Content and Composition of Bylaws (RONR Chapter XVIII, Section 56). Once they understand what needs to be in the basic set of Bylaws they should start from scratch and develop a whole new set of Bylaws based on Robert’s Rules of Order and compiling and inserting the pertinent rules and bylaws already established by the RCSC over the many years of the various versions of the Bylaws. 

I believe they will end up continuing to look back at each older version at some point. Although not intended, I believe it’s unavoidable, because how do you research where or why a Bylaw was or was not in the previous set of Bylaws unless you look back at the history of each previous set of Bylaws? I think they could save themselves a lot of time and aggravation if they were to just start from scratch. 

But that’s just my opinion! 

Tom Marone - Advisory Panel, Sun City Advocates

Read Jean Totten's take on the meeting here.