Opinion
00-09.
April 3, 2001.
On order of the Court, notice of the proposed changes and an opportunity for comment in writing and at a public hearing having been provided, and consideration having been given to the comments received, the following amendment of Rule 7 of the Rules Concerning the State Bar of Michigan is adopted, to be effective July 1, 2001.
[The present language is amended as indicated below.]
RULE 7. OFFICERS
Sec. 1. President, President-elect, Vice-president, Secretary, and Treasurer. The officers of the Board of Commissioners of the State Bar of Michigan are the president, the president-elect, the vice-president, the secretary, and the treasurer. The officers serve for the year beginning with the adjournment of the annual meeting following their election and ending with the adjournment of the next annual meeting. A person may serve as president only once.
After the election of board members but before the annual meeting each year, the Board of Commissioners shall elect from among its members, by majority vote of those present and voting, if a quorum is present:
(1) a president-elect who becomes president on the adjournment of the next succeeding annual meeting;
(2)(1) a vice-president who, after serving a one-year term, automatically succeeds to the office of president-elect for a one-year term, and then to the office of president, for a one-year term;
(4) (3) a treasurer.
The officers serve for the year beginning with the adjournment of the annual meeting following their election and ending with the adjournment of the next annual meeting. A person may serve as president only once. If a vice-president is not able to assume the duties of president-elect, the Board of Commissioners also shall elect from among its members, by majority vote of those present and voting, if a quorum is present, a president-elect who becomes president on the adjournment of the next succeeding annual meeting.
A commissioner whose term expires at the next annual meeting is not eligible for election as an officer unless the commissioner has been reelected or reappointed for another term as a commissioner. If a commissioner is elected president-elect with only one year of the term as a commissioner remaining, the term is extended for an additional year. If the remaining term of a commissioner elected vice-president or president-elect will expire before the commissioner completes a term as president, the term shall be extended to allow the commissioner to complete the term as president. If the term of an elected commissioner is so extended, the authorized membership of the board is increased by one for that year period; a vacancy in the district the vice-president or president-elect represents exists when the president-elect's term as a commissioner would normally expire, and an electionconducted to choose a successor is to be held in the usual manner.
No person holding judicial office may be elected or appointed an officer of the Board of Commissioners. A judge presently serving as an officer may complete that term but may not thereafter, while holding judicial office, be elected or appointed an officer. A person serving as an officer who, after the effective date of this amendment, is elected or appointed to a judicial office, must resign as an officer of the board on or before the date that person assumes judicial office.
Sec. 2 — Sec. 4 [Unchanged.]
Staff Comment: The April 3, 2001 amendment of § 1, effective July 1, 2001, provides that persons elected vice president of the Board of Commissioners succeed to the office of president-elect and then to the office of president.
The staff comment is published only for the benefit of the bench and bar and is not an authoritative construction by the Court.