Question: Bylaws violations

My PTO has not been operating under the bylaws for an undetermined amount of time. Once I inquired about bylaws and was able to locate them, the Board came up with their own, which violate some of the procedures in the existing ones, including how to revise/amend them. Even though several members questioned the occurrences at the most recent meeting (following Robert's Rules, and voting rights are ignored, but in the existing bylaws), the Board referenced their version. How can we as members rectify this? Our rights are being violated.

Asked by bythebook

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Craig writes:
I'm wondering what's at the root of the problem, in other words, what was it that made you refer to the bylaws in the first place? If the issue is simply about the bylaws and enough members are concerned, you can vote to change them. The group is run by the members -- officers are simply their elected administrators. Sometimes this gets lost as involvement goes up and down. But as members you have the right to overrule anything the board does, as long as you can come up with enough votes. If there's another problem that led to the bylaws issue, you might want to address that first. Otherwise, you might find you're expending a lot of energy and emotion on something that doesn't solve the initial issue you were concerned about.