A member of a society who is in arrears in payment of his dues, but who has not been formally dropped from the membership rolls and is not under a disciplinary suspension, retains the full rights of a voting member and is legally entitled to vote except as the bylaws may otherwise provide. Care should also be taken that members pay dues for the upcoming year before the annual meeting and election of officers. It is better to have members pay their dues for the upcoming year, then vote. Then they proceeded to lock horns. They grabbed control of the new group's future money by altering the bylaws to have the treasurer serve as the chairman of the finance committee.
Civility means much more than politeness.
But those who have made the transition do not want to go back. It cannot be assumed that new or present members have sufficient knowledge of parliamentary procedure to use it properly. The best way to bring this into focus would be to hold seminars with substantial training in correct procedure taught by an expert parliamentarian. A knowledgeable parliamentarian is of great importance to the council whose rules state that the chairman of the Rules Committee is the parliamentarian. But, it is wrong to assume that this chairman is knowledgeable enough to advise the chair on correct procedure.