PattiBelle

Wow! You all are very helpful! Thanks so much! Most of us feel the intent of the quoted "Special Email Meeting" by-law is to "Vote" on a single unexpected expense, not have a full blown meeting/motion/discussion.etc. The special meeting email vote has only on occasion & been used in this general manner with an email to all members in good standing from the President: "The expense for XYZ, with postage, handling and shipping will be $180 over the budgeted approved purchase amount. . . . $ 30 greater than the $ 150 limit that the bylaws allow for executive committee approval to pay without a general membership vote. Please vote yes or no to place this order given this new information. The exec. supports this additional expense. ( Estimated invoice attached) OR "The Facilities manager has brought to our attention that the commercial vacuum must be immediately replaced at a cost of $ 680. There is no money in the facilities budget for this. Please vote Yes or No for the purchase of a new vacuum at $ 680 with funds coming from our reserve balance of $ 4,875. The Executive committee supports this purchase. (Estimated invoice attached) In addition to the bylaws I previously quoted, the section further says, "One fourth of the number of members responding within four days constitutes a quorum." Chuckle DuJour! - You have likely guessed the bylaws are followed willy - nilly at best! The Spring general membership meeting where the original budget proposal was postponed (with a quorum physically present )was held on MARCH 16. Article VII, Section 1 states: " The Spring General Meeting shall be held between March 20 and April 7." :< )) Thankfully, as treasurer, I was across the Country for two months, had prepared a proposed budget approved by the Exec Com. before I left. I have just come home to this growing snowball of a mess. My experience with Parliamentary Procedure & RR is with a Governor's appointment serving on a county school board for two consecutive 5 year terms with 3 years as President and 3 years as Vice President with an attorney present for any public session. This current organization is a ladies golf group. (Imagine that! ) I resigned my treasurer post yesterday citing the work required for leading a $ 1M capital campaign that I am chairing. . . .and letting them know I just wanna play golf! :< ) Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and assistance! You provide a great service here!

The email vote has NOT occurred yet . . . just strongly recommended by a past president and possibly two others. The current president has not publicly committed her view and is looking for input on whether an email vote can/should take place for our budget based on the bylaws wording above (which I acknowledge is already outside the realm of RR ) She is not sure "who" to listen to & who gets the final say in "interpreting" fuzzy by-laws. I appreciate your input, "I suppose the President will have to decide how to interpret the rule in your bylaws." Can you cite page and verse to help support this? The new president has no experience in leading a group conducted by the rules of parliamentary procedure, and she wants to do the (best or most) right thing . . . Thank you!

I am treasurer of a women's organization with bylaws that some interpret differently. "Who" gets to decide how wording will be interpreted when there is a difference of opinion by a very small, but vocal minority of past officers? A proposed budget was tabled at a recent meeting in order to obtain clarifying info from me (the treasurer) who was out of the state. Now, less than 3 of 36 members want to have the 2018 year-long budget approved by email vote in a special meeting. The other members have not had any opportunity to weigh in or discuss the budget. Our by-laws state: "Special meetings may be conducted via email as long as the topic consists SOLELY of A spending issue." (My caps & bold) I maintain that passing a budget is NOT SOLELY A spending issue. It requires a motion, discussion and ultimatley acceptance of all income sources and projections, all line item expenses & projected reserves. After the budget was tabled, one of the vocal few decided to submit a budget with increases on 2 proposed budget line items, obviously projecting a (significantly) lesser ending balance year end. She (a past president and treasurer) maintains all this can be approved via a Special Email meeting. I'm saying "huh????" on so many levels! It was our president's first month in office and first meeting. Can you help sort this out?