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About Harvey Mechanic
Expertise
US Federal tax issues of nonprofit 501(c)(3) public charities only. Establishing and maintaining legal requirements for such non-profit organizations in the United States, including Internal Revenue service filings and requirements. I will not be working on this free forum to answer questions about Nonprofit's unrelated or for-profit businesses or how to fill out forms. This forum is only for general questions about federal tax law, not as the law applies to your specific situation. To search my previous answers you can do a Google search:
site:allexperts.com/q/nonprofit
[with your other search terms appended].

Experience
I have been practicing law and especially the law of nonprofit organizations since 1990 when I was admitted to the New York Bar.

Education/Credentials
B.S. Columbia University in New York City, 1970

J.D. (Law Degree) Brooklyn Law School, 1990 -- Cum Laude

You are here: Experts > Real Estate > Tax Planning: U.S. > Nonprofit Law > Election of Youth Football Board of Directors

Nonprofit Law - Election of Youth Football Board of Directors

Expert: Harvey Mechanic - 10/23/2009

Question
I am a parent in a non-profit youth football organization in California. There is no ballot vote by the parents (who pay for their child to participate) in order to elect Board members. You must already be a member of the Board in order to vote in the election, and the by-laws state that Board members serve two year terms. This has resulted in the Board consisting of a group of friends who control all decision-making, coach selection, and financial transactions. This situation has neen perpetuated for 20 years, with the same President during all of that time. I was under the impression that the members (parents) in the organization must be given the opportunity to vote by ballot in order to elect the Board. Please advise. Thank you!

Answer
You will need to see the Articles of Incorporation. http://snipr.com/ay58c Starting at section 5002 is the California
Nonprofit Corporation's law and specifically starting at 5110 is
the law for Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporations, the law that I am assuming under which the youth football organization was incorporated.

See
http://pages.citebite.com/a1o8s6s4l8gas
which is in section 5132
---Start of Excerpt--
(2) The classes of members, if any, and if there are two or more
classes, the rights, privileges, preferences, restrictions and
conditions attaching to each class.
---End of Excerpt--

Unless the articles of incorporation or bylaws give persons other than the members of the Board of Directors voting rights, then only the Board members have a vote. Usually in the articles there is a phrase, "The corporation shall not have members".

Harvey Mechanic, Attorney at Law -
Harvey108@hotmail.com

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