Session 12 - Bylaws - April 9

Responses to your Ticket Outs from Session 12!

What are you curious about?

• Where in Robert's does it talk about the Chair's requirement to stand at meetings?
• There is no such requirement.
• Who starts writing Bylaws for a newly organized society?
• The society designates a Committee to draw up Bylaws 
• RONR, p. 566
• Holding meetings in the absence of Bylaws
• Many organizations function without any set rules they follow
• Making an organization work and committees
• See you next week!
• What happens if a Bylaw is missing an important Article?
• You will have to follow the other rules in the Bylaws in the meantime, but hurry and make a Bylaws revision to include the necessary Articles!
• Can you "tweak" Bylaws already in place without Amending them?
• No. If the Bylaws say something, you want to follow that exactly. The only way you could "tweak" them is by actually amending them.
• RONR, p. 588-591: Principles of Interpretation
• What would you include in a Constitution that isn't in the Bylaws?
• Things that you want to amend less often and/or have them be more difficult to amend
• Can Bylaws be written in a way that they invalidate themselves?
• Of course, that is why when writing or revising Bylaws you want to take the utmost care that this does not happen. 
• If you have multiple sections that contradict each other, follow the following basic principles of interpretation so that you interpret your Bylaws as best as possible: RONR, p. 588-591

 What did you learn?

• General format of the Bylaws with the 9 basic Articles
• Proper time to use Point of Order
• The Membership Article and what it includes
• NOMOMECPA (mnemonic to remember the 9 Articles in order)
• Article I: Name
• Article II: Object
• Article III: Members
• Article IV: Officers
• Article V: Meetings
• Article VI: Executive Board
• Article VII: Committees
• Article VIII: Parliamentary authority
• Article IX: Amendments
• All about the Bylaws!
• How important it is to "waterproof" your organization's Bylaws
• A group an essentially establish any rules it wants when it creates its Bylaws
• How to write a solid set of Bylaws and where to start
• The importance of descriptive, specific Bylaws
• Bylaws amendments

What do you want to learn more about?

• Bylaws in informal groups where people don't care
• If there is no need for Bylaws, there is no need for Bylaws. Informal groups generally do not have Bylaws. However, if you are a campus organization you do need Bylaws filed with the Office of Student Activities. They will give you a very bare-bones skeleton that you can fill in in order to put down the most basic information about the organization.
• Special meetings
• A special meeting is a meeting that is called outside of the regularly scheduled meeting times and in which only the business sent out when calling the meeting can be discussed.
• See RONR, p. 91-92 for more information. 
• Amending Bylaws
• Amending Bylaws can be a very in-depth process. In order to start the process, often a Committee is created to do so. Also, usually previous notice is given. 
• Read more about all aspects of amending ("revising") Bylaws here: RONR, p. 592-599 
• The final exam
• We'll be talking about it soon!