Chuck

Some months ago, Parliamentarian John Martin responded to my question on this forum regarding how we might conduct important business when COVID restrictions prevent in-person meetings and our bylaws make no provision to vote on important business except in-person meetings. We explained the important business to our constituency via mail and received an overwhelming approval for the board to proceed and take the important action. Now we are able to meet in-person and need to ratify the decision of the board. Since the bylaws for this particular kind of decision require a ballot vote with 75% of the votes cast in favor of proceeding, should those stipulations be required for ratification of the board action? Is a majority of the votes cast sufficient to ratify the board's action? Also, we want to amend our bylaws to allow for decision-making should in-person meetings not be possible at some point in the future. I see some potential problems with just about every kind of remote voting. Can you suggest a fair and reasonable a small organization can conduct business when unable to meet in person? Thank you.

We certainly can make that announcement regarding ratification 2 Sundays prior to the next in-person meeting.

The church for which I serve as a moderator needs to make a very important decision soon. The constitution requires that an announcement of a meeting of the membership be announced on the 2 Sundays prior to the meeting. Since our documents do not address remote meetings, it seems like we would be satisfying the requirements of the constitution if we contacted every member personally to announce the meeting (there are less than 50 members). I think that should be adequate and more than meet the intent of the constitution. Thoughts? Since voting on the motion to be presented cannot be in person, if every member is aware of a ballot vote to be conducted by Postal Service mail, can we proceed with a majority vote? or a unanimous vote? When we are able to meet in person again, should we ratify the ballot vote? I'm not sure how that might look. Thank you for your input during these challenging times.

We needed to elect 3 people to a board. Two would serve 3-year terms; one would serve a 2-year term. What is the correct way to determine which candidate gets the 2-year term?

Well, Chuck doesn't have the newly revised edition, just an older edition. So the page numbers cited are not helping!! But thanks. It's great to have this opportunity to share.

When voting by ballot for the election of officers, what rule(s) apply for announcing the vote totals for each candidate? May the names of those who receive the required majority vote be announced without the vote totals for each?

If members leave during a meeting and the attendance drops below the required quorum, can business continue to be conducted?