I sent the following letter to every member of the RCSC Board hoping someone will pick-up the ball and add this as an agenda item at the next meeting of the Board.
Request to Amend the Bylaws:
The ability to vote is one of the entitlements of being a Member of any organization. Membership entitles a Member the right to attend meetings, to make motions, to speak in debate and to vote, and those entitlements can only be deprived thru a disciplinary procedure. (RONR 1:4)
That alone makes the restriction of Article IV, Section 4 of the RCSC Bylaws invalid, but that’s not the purpose of this letter.
The purpose of this letter is to respectfully request that a motion be made, prior to the upcoming Annual Membership Meeting, to amend the Bylaws and strike out Article IV, Section 5, (Voting Procedures at Membership Meetings) which requires that all votes, at any meeting of the Members, shall be by ballot.
By striking out Section 5 the method of voting simply reverts back to the standard methods prescribed in your parliamentary authority, Robert’s Rules of Order, which allows votes to be taken by, a voice vote, a rising/counting vote, a roll-call vote, or by unanimous consent.
Once it’s stated in the Bylaws, lacking any exclusion, that all votes shall be by ballot, there are no rules that would allow that procedure to be suspended. (RONR 45:20)
Requiring all votes to be by ballot means you can’t even approve the Minutes, an Agenda or call for a Recess without taking a vote by ballot!?!?!
Important points:
There were no official ballots handed out at last year’s Annual Membership Meeting, so even if we were allowed to vote there were no provisions made to do so, which leads to a more serious concern. Assuming we acquire a quorum at the upcoming Annual Membership Meeting, and assume a motion that is not related to the, so-called, “affairs of the corporation” is made (and I can name several) the last thing we need to hear is that the meeting will be adjourned to the following week so that ballots can be provided. A quorum may not be achievable if the meeting is postponed.
And lastly, you have to ask yourself why Article IV, Section 5 even exists if we’re not allowed to vote at our own meeting?
Tom Marone, Advisory Panel Sun City Advocates
See Comments posted to Talk of Sun City on this topic.
3 comments:
Good questions Tom. Does it give the impression that Articles, procedures, and non-provisioning of ballots were/are rigged to impede voting in any way possible?
It's certainly an issue that needs to be before the next Annual Membership Meeting.
There also doesn't seem to be any specific procedure to account for proxy votes regardless of whether or not the vote is taken by ballot? When a person holding proxy votes casts their vote, how do they determine how many votes are actually being represented?
It doesn't seem to me that they have thought things out very well. That's why the easiest thing for them to do is to simply not allow us to vote! Problem solved!
Something else to think about!
The Articles of Incorporation (Article XIV) say that any amendment to the Articles "shall be submitted to a vote of the Members..."
So if we're not allowed to vote at our own Meetings, then how will the Articles of Incorporation EVER get amended and updated?
BTW, there are a few things in the current Articles of Incorporation that do need to be updated. When the Arizona Revised Statutes were revised many statutes got shifted around and are no longer covered under the designation stated in the Articles. Same is true for some of the Bylaws that are specified in the Articles of Incorporation. When the RCSC Bylaws had that major restructuring, some of the Bylaws were renumbered and they no longer coincide with those stated in the Articles of Incorporation!
Just say'n!
I certainly hope the Ad Hoc Committee is paying very close attention to what they're doing because a change in one Bylaw often has an effect on another.
Post a Comment