In message <4d44a2e0.7040...@sbcglobal.net>, Timothy Swenson
<swenso...@sbcglobal.net> writes
Hi Tim,
The simple way around this, is for all of the Officers to step down at
the AGM, every Year.
Then, for a few seconds, the organisation has no Officers - no one in
charge.
Following this brief period of time, the names of the members standing
as Officers is read out - by the Secretary - to the general membership
present (which can be any or all of the previously serving Officers).
These then become the Officers for the forthcoming Year.
This is what I practice as the Company Secretary to a Limited Company by
Guarantee and Not for Profit, and a Registered Charity.
In our case we have a Board of Trustees, standing down, and then
continuing in to the forthcoming Year (if the individuals wish to
re-stand).
New nominations are also taken at this time.
The problem with setting a period of time for an Officer to serve,
always causes problems at some time or other.
Especially, the more complicated versions, where Officers resign in some
kind of sequence linked to a period served.
The Charity Commission, in the UK, has a number of "standard"
Constitutions, on its web site, which are there to be used depending on
the type and purpose of the organisation.
An AGM, is a General Meeting of the organisation. Open to all members
to attend.
Yet, Officers, as such are not elected at AGM's. People simply put
themselves forward to serve, in a public manner.
It is then for the Committee / Board to decide who is best suited to the
various Posts. On which they take a Vote.
Were Officers to be elected, directly, at an AGM, it would open the door
to someone incompetent to get voted in, or some collusion to take place.
For a Registered Company, all the Board members are listed, openly, on
the Companies House Register. Which is available for the public to see.
From the discussion I can get a feel for what might be the issue that
is being discussed. Over the last 12 years I've been on the Board of 4
different non-profits. I've written the By-laws (what you guys are
calling the Constitution) for one non-profit.
The only time the By-laws really come into play is when someone thinks
that the organization is not behaving properly. I was in one
non-profit where there were two factions and we really needed the
By-laws to keep everyone playing properly.
In another non-profit, the By-laws stipulate how long an officer may
hold an office. We've ignored this part of the By-laws because there
is no one stepping up to take over the office. If we followed the
By-laws all of the officers would be termed out and with no one
stepping up to take over, the organization would basically have no
Board. If someone does step forward to complain, we'll volunteer them
for an office. :-)
Tim Swenson
--
Malcolm Cadman
_______________________________________________
QL-Users Mailing List
http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
