Bylaws Discussion Forum
Hey everyone - I (Luke) have been receiving questions via e-mail about the Draft Bylaws. I will try to answer all the questions below. Be sure to check back often to find new questions and answers.
Q. 1. Why do the bylaws sound so legal?
A. They sound legal because that is what they are - a legal document. We are required by the State of Alabama to have bylaws, by our denomination (The Christian and Missionary Alliance), and it protects the church as an organization in case of legal action.
Q. 2. What is Roberts Rule of Order?
A. Roberts Rule of Order is the standard book of procedure to running a meeting. It sounds hard, but it is not. The point of the rules is to provide for “constructive and democratic meetings, to help, not hinder, the business of the assembly”.
Q. 3. What is a quorum?
A. A quorum is “the minimum number of members of an assembly or society that must be present at any of its meetings to make the proceedings of that meeting valid”. In the case of the draft bylaws, a quorum for the annual meeting is all of the members who are present. This means that we can have a meeting and not have to have a minimum number of members present.
A quorum for the Board to make legal decision is 3/5 or 3 of the 5 members.
Paul said:
On page 3 under “Membership List” it says “Safe Harbor Church, the senior pastor and the other elders shall have the power to remove inactive members from the rolls who have exceeded the one-year mark or to extend the inactive statues for another year. A let-
ter shall be sent to the member concerned informing him/her of this action.” but a person is not considered inactive until 1-year…so is this one year mark that is to not be exceeded…is it one year on the inactive list (which means two years because it takes a year to initially be considered inactive)?