Hopefully you were all smarter than we were initially and had the "the number of members present at a meeting constitue a quorum". We couldn't do anything "legally" because with 240 family members we never had the 2/3s. So we had to wait till the memberships expired, then hold a meeting, have the folks there join and then vote in the quorum amendment (since the PTO was now at about 15 and we had a quorum). That was all we could think to do...d
We just made a motion to review bylaw changes.
We set up an emergency committee meeting this wed. and I asked for all proposed changes in my mailbox by Monday. I will compile them and put them in order and Wed. meeting, everyone who wanted to propose their change will state why and we will vote on them that night. After this occurs and we all agree on the proposed changes, we will present them at the next pto meeting and let the general member have 30days to look over the changes. The changes will be made at the Nov. meeting. PTO Today, gave me great ideas on how to conduct this meeting.
Hope it goes as planned.
If your bylaws reference Roberts Rules of Order as the authority for parlimentary procedure (and that's fairly common), then RRO spells out the rules for bylaw revisions:
Bylaw revisions require previous notice and a two-thirds vote of the members in attendance, assuming quorum is met. Previous notice is usually given in written form, being extremely clear as to the scope of the proposal and the reasoning behind it.
From what I've read, RRO does not specify how long in advance "previous notice" must be given. However, 5 minutes before the meeting doesn't constitute previous notice. We allow at least one week, though we prefer to announce a bylaw amendment proposal at one meeting and bring it up for vote the next month.
You can include an effective date in a bylaw amendment, though unless specified, approved bylaw changes become effective immediately.
With respect to your issue specifically, I noticed that RRO won't allow you to eliminate a position just to reduce the number of officers if you already have someone duly elected to serve in that office. Since you are debating term limits, I guess that would mean you couldn't kick an old-timer out of office this year even if she has served longer than the newly-approved term limit.
(I got this insight from a little book called "Roberts Rules In Plain English" by Doris Zimmerman. There are other similar books, each about $5 at the big bookstores. I've referred to them often when stuck on a procedural issue.)
Any changes to our by-laws require them to be made public 30 days in advance of voting on them. Then, 2/3 majority vote by the membership that is present.
We can make changes at anytime, but in the past 4 years, we've only made 2 changes.
Hi!! You can change by-laws anytime. Usually a motion is passed to amend the by-laws then you can change them that night or hold a special meeting to do it. The next meeting a copy of the revised by-laws is handed out & a motion is passed to accept the revised by-laws if it passes, the it usually takes affect at the next meeting. Hope this helps. Good luck.
Wanted to know if anyone have examples that state when a By-Law change should take effect. We have a motion to change the By-Laws with respect to 'Number of consecutive years that a Board member can be served' and we have NO statement as to when a By-Law amendment can 'take affect'.
Thoughts? I think this sort of 'major' change should take effect at the start of the next school year rather than immediately.
Thanks.
