Ben
This is the response I sent via email repoly at 9:40am & 2:56pm; however, I have not had a reply.
Thank you,
Patsy MacLean
Ben,
Our social organization was given a $10,000 check to be used in memory of a deceased member.
The Board and membership submitted possible choices to the secretary. The Board voted & selected 3 top choices of 11 submissions. (Each board member select her top 3 choices.) The voting was very close. The membership is voting to select the top choice.
The majority of the Board feels this was a rushed process and wishes to step back and take more time and reach a compromise.
I advised the President to have a secret ballot vote at the upcoming meeting, however she chose to send out an email ballot to be submitted to the secretary. After voting started and there was an uproar about the lack of opportunity to submit a �secret� ballot, she added voting by mail and voting at the upcoming meeting. A committee will tally the ballots.
The majority of the Board would like to rescind the original ballot and resubmit another ballot to the membership. The question is:
After the Board voted to send a ballot to the entire membership and voting has begun, can the Board vote to rescind the original ballot to send a new modified ballot? (Only a small percentage of the membership have voted.)
We are a membership of approximately 180. 44 have submitted a vote by email. The next membership meeting is Nov 15.
I hope this help and appreciate your input.
Dear Patsy,
First and foremost, do your bylaws allow you to conduct a vote by email? If not then it cannot be done. If this is the case, then all the board has to do is state that they have consulted with a parliamentarian and that since it is not in the bylaws, the email vote is not allowed and a decision will be made at the meeting coming up.
If your members are used to discussing these types of questions at a meeting then it only causes problems to circumvent the democratic process.
The second thing is that you do not combine types of ballots--those with e-mail and those with a secret ballot. I say clear the decks. Start again. Let the members decide what to do with the money and not the board.
If you do allow e-mail votes let me know and we will discuss what to do next. Usually, you do not rescind the ballot during a vote.
Cheerio,
Little Ben
Question submitted by patsy on November 10, 2016