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I'm trying to wrap my head around something and want to do things in a proper way. Our annual congregational meeting is on sunday afternoon. Last night I had a couple of bizarre requests dropped into my lap by council. The one I want to write about here is postponing part of the meeting to allow folks to study the financials, which will only be ready at the very last minute. My qns are about how to handle the postponed part of the meeting. Our bylaws state that: -- two of the purposes of the annual meeting is "considering and making a decision on the draft annual budget" and to elect new officers -- elected officials hold office "from the moment immediately following the adjournment of the meeting at which he or she was elected .... until the next Congregational Meeting at which [title is] appointed or elected. " In particular the Secretary of the Congregation "holds office until the next annual meeting." -- there is no provision in the bylaws for breaking the annual meeting into two parts -- notice of a cong meeting requires a minimum of two full Sundays prior to the meeting. Council wants to have the financial discussion the following Sunday. Some feel that announcing from the pulpit is sufficient, I prefer a more thorough approach with a packet (cover letter, agenda, supporting documents, etc.) by email or postal mail. In the agenda I have already sent out, financials are about 2/3 of the way in (estimated: 30 minutes), followed by a motion re auditors, then elections, then a second motion suggested earlier, then motions from the floor. (My time estimate not including a break is 3 hours 42 minutes and there is now another meeting booked into the space at 3 hours 30 minutes. There are required elements that need to take place, and I encourage folks to speak up and interact. Time estimates are not circulated to the masses.) Here are my questions: -- There is currently no date/time for the postponed part of the meeting. I anticipate squabbles about who can and cannot attend on a proposed date. Can I ask a select few (e.g. finance, tech, social events, etc.) to put their heads together for 5 minutes (either immediately before the meeting or at the financial section) and agree on a date for all of us? -- Can changes be made the the agenda of the postponed section? If this postponement goes ahead I want to postpone just the financial discussion and [attempt to] finish the rest of the meeting. I object to breaking up the meeting into two parts simply because "it's too long". -- Do I need to read minutes when we reconvene? For the entire meeting or just for the financial section? -- Do last year's elected officials still hold office till the end of the postponed period? In particular for two roles: Director of finance (no one nominated for next year) and secretary of the congregation (new person acclaimed at the moment). Currently I seem to be continuing as chair of cong. -- If the motion to postpone is lost, does that mean we must move to approve the budget then and there? I am anticipating several meltdowns especially by the current secretary of the cong, who apparently had never taken minutes until 3 weeks ago and has been trying to redefine her responsibilities on the fly. (example: insisting that taking attendance is not part of minutes) Your kind thoughts are much appreciated. I feel manipulated.