With regard to the follow-up question you posted on the Robert's Rules forum, check to see if the by-laws reference an overall authority (such as Robert's Rules of Order). If there is no authority referenced in the by-laws, then the board may choose to do what it wants (including violate its own by-laws). It will be up to the membership, then, to show its displeasure and apply pressure towards a change by revolting (refusing to volunteer, refusing to fund their programs, and so on). Strangle the beast, so to speak.
If your parent organization by-laws DO reference a parliamentary authority like Robert's, it would behoove you to arm yourself with a copy of the book and look up the reference another Robert's poster gave you.
I don't have the bylaws in front of me, but they basically say that once you are voted into a position the position is held for one year. You can be elected and hold the position for 2 years. If no one runs against you, you can run for the position a third year and so on. By cheating, I mean that this woman has had the position for 3 years already, but last year was uncontested. This year she ran for a 4th time this past April, but my friend ran against her for the position. This should have made the woman ineligible to run for the position. They were the only 2 people. I feel that my friend was cheated out of this opportunity and we are told there is nothing we can do to change it or stop them from doing it again next year because there is no higher authority that they must answer to. I don't see how this can be possible.
We need more information in order to give you good advice, such as explain "cheated" and can you give us the relevent exerpts from the SSO's by-laws that cause you to believe that this person is ineligible for office?
Also, for additional assistance, I posted your question on the Robert's Rules forum board.
A member of my son's SSO Board (parent organization)
cheated to get elected into office. We have bylaws that
prove she was not eligible to be on the ballot to run for a
4th term, but she did so anyway and she won. The
school district claims there is no authority over the SSO
Board's actions and there is nothing we can do to stop
this person from acting as SSO President even though
we can prove she should not be there. Do we actually
have to hire a lawyer to threaten with legal action if this
woman will not step down from her position? What CAN
we do?
