Chris Wren

Thanks, Weldon. I plan to contact the city attorney's office and raise that exact issue.

Thanks, Joshua. I was uncertain about how "prescribed" would be construed, which could be read as describing a law specifying only that something must be done or not done rather than also including simply allowing something to be done. Too much time spent, I guess, reading cases interpreting statutes and holding that "shall" can mean "may" and doesn't necessarily create a mandate that something must or must not be one.

An organization of which I'm a member has the common problem of bylaws that do not authorize electronic meetings. The group consists of retirees and has been meeting electronically since early in the pandemic. Because of the age of the group's members and the risks posed by the delta variant of COVID, it's unlikely the group will meet in person for the foreseeable future. Moreover, the group has a quorum requirement of "50% plus 1 (one)," which adds the the unlikelihood of gathering enough members for an in-person meeting any time soon. The group's bylaws specify RONR as the parliamentary authority. Unsurprisingly, the group was not pleased when I explained that the electronic meetings do not comply with RONR because they are not authorized under the bylaws. We're now trying to work our way out of the Catch-22 of trying to authorize electronic meetings without being able to meet in person in sufficient numbers to amend the bylaws. RONR states that "the actions of any deliberative body are also subject to applicable procedural rules prescribed by local, state, or national law and would be null and void if in violation of such law." (RONR sec. 1:5.) One solution I'm pondering is suggesting that the group petition our city council to pass an ordinance authorizing an organization with (to quote our bylaws) its "principal office and place of business" in the city to hold electronic meetings even if the bylaws don't authorize them. If the city council adopted such an ordinance, would that then allow the group to meet electronically in compliance with RONR? (I recognize that legislation can take a while, but given the reluctance of the group's members to assemble in person, even a legislative process might complete its course before another in-person meeting.)