BSTREEP1606

Thank you ALL for your input. Just to clarify: When we "spend money", the hosting country throws the party, and uses funds it receives from attendees. Because of the size (4-500 typically), we use an event planner. Even at the local level, we don't have dues. Again, thanks for your input.

Thanks, folks. Just to clarify, we have no worldwide funds, and funds even at the national and local level are tiny. Everyone pays their way. At the US national level, maybe a couple of thousand bucks. However, the budget for the next one will be about a million. Crazy, yes. I did just re-read the bylaws, and the presiding officer for a meeting is the presiding officer of the country holding the event. In this case, can the presiding officer of Uruguay, our host, call the next meeting? It is in our bylaws that we meet every 4 years. Thanks again! Bill

As with most people posting here, we are looking for some help. This one’s kind of different. We have a worldwide fraternal organization of sailors. “Loose” is too tight a definition for the group. We have representatives from 28 countries. The Bylaws are short and sweet. More like short and ugly. We have no executive officer. Each represented country gets one vote. We have a secretary with “no executive powers”. Meetings require a quorum of 50% of the countries. We get together somewhere in the world every 4 years for a week-long party, and a morning is scheduled for our business meeting. Where we get together is decided at the prior event. There don’t appear to be any provisions for calling a meeting outside of this. At this point you can probably guess the problem. We met in Uruguay a few weeks ago. There was no quorum. Little business is ever discussed that matters, but it does take longer than would normally be necessary, because we have to have translators for several languages. The assembled group DID agree, unanimously, on where the next meeting would be. Normally, there are representatives from several countries who want to have the next meeting/party, but there was only one who, somewhat reluctantly, wanted it. I can say that if all 28 countries where there, the vote would have been 28-0. No one is unhappy about the choice, and there’s no doubt that a quorum will be made. HOWEVER, we do have some folks, who chose not to attend, that are saying “no quorum, no meeting, no next meeting decision”. The problem is, the Bylaws have no avenue for selecting the next meeting. We have no executive officer. Thoughts? And thanks in advance, I know from experience that forum work is sometimes work.