[Lingtyp] amendments, statutes, required majority

[Sebastian Nordhoff]

On 11/22/2017 04:47 PM, William Croft wrote:
> The statutes do not have any procedure for adopting policies or amendments. 

Dear all,
I have had a look at the statutes[1] and I found

------------------------------------------------------------
Article VII. Amendments
Any proposed amendments to this constitution must be submitted to the
Secretary-Treasurer in writing, signed by at least five members of the
Association. Such proposals will be submitted to the membership for
ballot. An amendment must have the approval of two-thirds of the members
voting.
------------------------------------------------------------

I am not sure whether what we are currently voting on is an amendment.

If it is, there will be a need for a qualified majority of 2/3.

If what we are currently voting on is not an amendment, then I suppose
it is not covered by the statutes at all, which would make it legally
meaningless in my opinion. It could still be taken as an opinion poll of
course, but it would not have any legal consequences.

Disclaimer: I have been deeply involved in the legal ramifications of
electronic voting procedures between 2012 and 2015 in a highly
conflictive, even hostile, environment, so my appreciation of statutes
and the like is formed by that.

Best wishes
Sebastian

[1] http://www.linguistic-typology.org/ALTstatutes.pdf