Beyond
that though, is the problem Becky identified earlier: it seems
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you are mistaken when you say that an organisation's board is required
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to obey/comply with its bylaws. We have been told that the Board of an
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organisation with no members has a fiduciary duty to the company that
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takes precedence over the Bylaws: if the Board decides that it is in the
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best interests of the corporation to defy the bylaws, then defying them
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is their legal duty. Only by creating a membership (whether through
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Empowered SOs, UAs, Open Membership, or some other approach) can we
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raise up the bylaws to something the Board must honour in the way you
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assume they already must.
I think the issue is a little more nuanced Malcolm, so I apologize if I oversimplified. Bylaws consist of words, which are subject to various interpretations. The Board must interpret and apply the bylaws in light of its fiduciary obligations. In a
membership organization, the SOs and ACs would have a meaningful way to participate in and effect that interpretation and application process.