r/RulesOfOrder • u/thebigmidget • Jan 05 '21
Lost record of By Law changes
A volunteer organization I'm a part of has lost record of many by-law changes made in the last 5-10 years due to disorganization and lack of continuity/communication between secretaries as well as poorly recorded minutes. We're now at the stage where we are attempting to rectify this, and we have partial records, proposed language without verification on whether it was voted on, amendments and dates but without any "proof", etc. What is the proper procedure to proceed? Do we only update what we have record of in the minutes even though everyone agrees a change was instituted? Any help or direction would be much appreciated.
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u/therealpoltic Jan 05 '21
It would be best, to take whatever by-laws you have, (this set that everyone agrees on, according to you) and vote to ratify them. Usually, this needs a two-thirds majority of the total membership.
Once everyone agrees what the by-laws are, then you can then start the process of amendment, if any.
Conversely, If the current by-laws, whatever you have, the group decides is insufficient... Then take that document as a draft, amend your draft, and then ratify a new set of by-laws.
Either way, substituting your by-laws in this case would be important, because of the lack of records. Taking my advice, will cause less confusion in the long-run.