Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Have you been elected as secretary?

I have served in many different positions in many organizations and I have come to the conclusion that being the secretary is one of the most difficult. Trying to take minutes and being an active meeting participant at the same time is challenging. If you are a secretary for an ongraniztion, you might want to check out a new online training course Minutes Made Easy at http://www.parliamentarians.org/

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Chris,
I was so happy to find your website. I was secretary of a community group which is in the process of applying for non-profit status. I recently resigned due to the fact that the chair was not working according to our established by-laws. That person is stating that we do not have by-laws. This group has run for about 8 years without by-laws. In the resort community where we live, the Association has clubs that allowed to use their facilities to host their fundraising events. We were in the process of preparing to file an application with the COA and one of their rules is the group must have by-laws. So we had a general meeting of our long running organization and presented the new by-laws and they were voted on and carried unanimously with over 100 members in attendace. It later turned out that the COA would not accept us as a club with facilities use because of insurance reasons because of the type of services we provide to people like home care, transportation etc. Now the chair says that we don't have by-laws and they were only done to try to become a club. 3 members of the board have resigned due to this situation and there are 5 of the 8left, plus 1 new member that the president chose to fill a spot which is against our by-laws which say a vote is needed to be on the board. Are our by-laws still in effect for our organization and how do we move forward?

Chris Dickey said...

It appears that you are a homeowner's association and as such you are probably under the juridaiction of state laws. I would suggest that you contact an attorney in your state. I f you are not a home owner's association, then you did indeed adopt bylaws if the vote wa unanimous. Blyaws for an organizing association need just an majority vote.

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Anonymous said...

Can an advisory council designate a specific person to enact a motion presented by a council member? Is there a Robert’s Rule for this?