I am the Secretary for a California gun club. We are a 501c3. Recently there have been multiple run ins with the board and the membership on the way things have been run in the past. Some remember things one way and others, another. Looking at past minutes, both could be correct because the minutes are not very specific. An example is the membership gets a discount ($5) when belonging to another organization. The clubs board would like to remove this discount (its not in the const. nor bylaws) and save $3500 yearly for other outreach. It was brought up that the membership voted to have this discount so it must be the membership that votes it out. I can find no mention of it being voted in only that it exists in the minutes
So... the decision was made to rework the bylaws to account for all these little changes that have occurred over the years by going through past minutes. Then I begin to read more on what "Bylaws" are and what a "Constitution" is (we have both) and It appears that maybe incorporating all the minute rules into the bylaws is incorrect and not the thing to do.
So how normally do clubs or organizations handle this?? We have a Const. and Bylaws both are slim and looks to only have whats necessary. How are the "Rules" carried forward from year to year if they arent in the bylaws... such as "all new members will get a hat..." if that was 10 years ago and only a 2 sentence meeting minute entry describes it and its now not being followed how do we go about making sure these things ARE followed going forward.
