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sMargaret

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  1. Is there a specific reference that people could point me to regarding the right of a new board member to see minutes from a past meeting held in executive session? I've found RONR (12th ed.) 9:26 and 47:36, but need to be able to show that it applies not just to those who were members at the time. thank you!
  2. Fortunately for all, the diplomatic approach (plus stating knowledge of our options) seems to have won. The people that I had been in touch with are the staff at the district, who are acting in their positions. They seem to have been proceeding based on the direction of the board chair & vice-chair - there are 5 existing members of the board, elected in the general election held last year. The rationale seems to have been to start fresh, after the end of this school year, and that "swearing in at the end of the meeting ensures that no-one is in a position of voting on a motion without all of the information". In our conversation, I noted that while I can certainly understand that POV, the fact of the matter is that there was indeed a by-election that was held, and elections have consequences. The full agenda should be coming out Friday, which I will watching for with interest. I suspect I'll be back for other issues - fortunately, I do have the 12th edition (plus 11th and 10th), several simplified versions, and some decent supplemental materials from other publishers.
  3. Certainly, one thing we were considering was a nuclear option, which is where we'd get a judge to swear us in outside, invite the media to witness, and then go into the meeting with the signed oath of office. At that point, however, we'd be faced with explaining to them that yes, they'd need to seat us. There's been some situations with this board; there's a reason that two good trustees had resigned, leading to the by-election.
  4. That is indeed one of the things we're checking on, but the other potential administers of the oath would be a bit trickier to come by.
  5. Greetings, I'm one of two newly elected school trustees, elected in a by-election. The applicable laws, bylaws, and policies state that a trustee takes office after the oath of office is administered, which has to be at least 10 days after the election. There is a board meeting scheduled on that day. The last time there was a by-election, the new trustees took their oath first, followed by an inaugural meeting with the election to various positions, and then a general meeting was held. I've now received an email stating that the oath of office will be administered after the general board meeting. I'm still exploring law, bylaws, policies, and diplomacy, but given that points of procedure not provided for in policy shall be decided in accordance with RONR, I thought I would check with RONR to see if there was anything useful. I've checked my copy of the 12th edition (and have 10th and 11th around), but can't seem to find anything. Thank you for any assistance.
  6. A few thoughts: * typically, after a PTO gives money to the school, the money is then the school's money. Do you mean that you want a committee to review school funding requests, and see which ones the PTO wishes to handle? * at a school that my children attend, the teachers/staff of the school put together proposals for projects/requests (usually a one page form and some support materials), then these go to the board first to review, and then are voted on at a general meeting. * if there are other projects the PTO would like to see put into place, this would be proposed at a general meeting, and then (eventually) decided on at a general meeting. * I would suggest that funding decisions be made by the general membership rather than the executive committee, but check to see what your bylaws say / write some bylaws about this. My answer may be different if this is more a private type of a school, one where the parents are funding more of it.
  7. To extend a bit from Josh Martin's answer, if the Chair alone is empowered to fill the vacancy, then the Chair alone can accept the resignation. If the general membership is required to fill the vacancy, then the resignation would need to be accepted by a meeting of the general membership. It's going to depend on what your bylaws say.
  8. George, from what you've written about what's in your bylaws (which apparently don't refer to executive board meetings), apparently no individual members have the authority to call an executive board meeting, which would include the Chair. However, at a properly called meeting, you should be able to make a motion as to how to schedule these meetings. I would also suggest revising the bylaws to allow for special executive board meetings to be called by executive board members.
  9. Here's an idea - given that you have regularly scheduled general meetings, why not bring forward a motion at your next general meeting to schedule regular executive meetings? Motion: to have executive meetings 14 days before a regular meeting, at such and such a time and location.
  10. So your bylaws only refer to scheduled General meetings? There is nothing in the bylaws about the Executive meetings? There seems to be the assumption here that the Executive meetings are regularly scheduled. If they're not actually regularly scheduled, then they are presumably ad hoc. Is there anything under the duties of officers that refers to calling meetings? The chair isn't actually cancelling a meeting here - he's pointing out that the other executive members don't have the authority to call an executive meeting, and from the evidence so far, he is correct.
  11. George, how are meetings generally scheduled? Is there a set schedule in the bylaws (such as monthly, quarterly, etc)? Is your chair cancelling scheduled board meetings when someone requests one, or if someone else tries to call one, is he stating that he's the only one who can call a meeting?
  12. Don't think of it as rounding, but think of it this way - you need at least two-thirds, so you need at least 4.6 votes in favour. Presuming you don't have any fractional members, 4 won't get you there, so at least 5 in favour is what you need.
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