Canceling a Meeting without a Motion

[TrevorSorensen]

A public board decided the date of a meeting out of a meeting and placed it in the agenda. The chairman now has decided to cancel the meeting due to conflicts. Can the chair take such action?

[Larry Cisar]

A public board decided the date of a meeting out of a meeting and placed it in the agenda. The chairman now has decided to cancel the meeting due to conflicts. Can the chair take such action?

Only if the rules of the association give the president such a power.

[Gary c Tesser]

Is this a trick question? Mr Sorensen, is this board really authorized to decide the date of a meeting out of a meeting?

[TrevorSorensen]

Is this a trick question? Mr Sorensen, is this board really authorized to decide the date of a meeting out of a meeting?

The board is not, but they still scheduled it. So that would be their first problem. Is there anything that could be done to handle the situation?

[David A Foulkes]

This being a "public board" (not sure that means what it looks like it means, but....), there may be other rules and/or laws that apply above and beyond RONR. And the bylaws may give some authority to the Chair, which we can't know. Moving on.

What kind of meeting was going to be held? Is it a Board meeting, a general membership meeting, some other type of meeting?

Actually, I'd say all is well. Barring some other rule or law that allows this public board to schedule a (special?) meeting while outside of the meeting context, then the future meeting would have been invalid anyway, and was not really scheduled to begin with. So the Chairman hasn't actually cancelled the meeting, because it never was scheduled in the first place, legitimately anyway.

Determining the date of a future meeting when not actually in a meeting (which is what I take "decided the date of a meeting out of a meeting" to mean) can't be done. To schedule a future meeting would need to be done by a motion in a previous meeting.

The conundrum here is that, if the board were to go ahead with holding this "meeting" (which quite likely would be an invalid meeting anyway), the best shot you'd have is to attend and raise a Point of Order about the invalidity of the meeting. Kind of quirky to use a proper parliamentary procedure to address the problem of an improper meeting.... at an improper meeting. You can't raise a Point of Order outside of a meeting, and since this wouldn't really be a meeting, how can raise a Point of Order? But what else are you going to do?

[Gary c Tesser]

Actually, I'd say all is well.

David, I don't think we can say this. One of the real-world (with which I have a remote and faint acquaintance) problems is that if you get a bunch of people to traipse out into the snow and get together to hopefully accomplish something, they're going to be very resistant to being told that they can do nothing whatsoever because of a bunch of finicky fine-print rules that obstructive fly-specking pseudo-lawyers use to prevent decent intelligent people from getting done what needs to be done.

I have pointed this out before. (I oughtta make a macro....) It should be publicized that the meeting is NOT going to be held. So nobody should come. (Mr Sorensen, take steps to handle whoever does come anyway.)

A couple more. Mr Sorensen, how are meetings usually scheduled? And .. what did you mean, that the board placed it in the agenda?

[TrevorSorensen]

David, I don't think we can say this. One of the real-world (with which I have a remote and faint acquaintance) problems is that if you get a bunch of people to traipse out into the snow and get together to hopefully accomplish something, they're going to be very resistant to being told that they can do nothing whatsoever because of a bunch of finicky fine-print rules that obstructive fly-specking pseudo-lawyers use to prevent decent intelligent people from getting done what needs to be done.

I have pointed this out before. (I oughtta make a macro....) It should be publicized that the meeting is NOT going to be held. So nobody should come. (Mr Sorensen, take steps to handle whoever does come anyway.)

A couple more. Mr Sorensen, how are meetings usually scheduled? And .. what did you mean, that the board placed it in the agenda?

The meetings are put in the agenda for the meeting previous, and it has not been publicized whatsoever.

[Gary c Tesser]

The meetings are put in the agenda for the meeting previous ....

Mr Sorensen, are you saying that each meeting is scheduled the previous meeting, but they didn't bother to say when the meeting would be?

But again: how are meetings usually scheduled? (For example, is it a standard day of the month, specified in the bylaws?)

In any event, Dr Cisar's post, the first reply, did answer your basic question. After that, we've been dithering about whether that was the most important question.

[TrevorSorensen]

Mr Sorensen, are you saying that each meeting is scheduled the previous meeting, but they didn't bother to say when the meeting would be?

But again: how are meetings usually scheduled? (For example, is it a standard day of the month, specified in the bylaws?)

In any event, Dr Cisar's post, the first reply, did answer your basic question. After that, we've been dithering about whether that was the most important question.

It is scheduled two meetings before. It is put in the agenda for the meeting BEFORE it is scheduled. The bylaws state the meeting is decided by the assembly. However, the assembly decided, out of session, the date of the meeting. I was asked this question by a person believing the chair cannot call off a meeting because it violated the bylaws.

[Gary Novosielski]

A public board decided the date of a meeting out of a meeting and placed it in the agenda. The chairman now has decided to cancel the meeting due to conflicts. Can the chair take such action?

No.

[Josh Martin]

It is scheduled two meetings before. It is put in the agenda for the meeting BEFORE it is scheduled. The bylaws state the meeting is decided by the assembly. However, the assembly decided, out of session, the date of the meeting. I was asked this question by a person believing the chair cannot call off a meeting because it violated the bylaws.

Thank you, that clarifies matters nicely. Based upon the facts presented, it appears that the board did not have the authority to call a meeting outside of a meeting. The chair, however, also has no authority to make a ruling on the subject outside of a meeting. In my opinion, it would be advisable for the board to hold the meeting, at which time the chair can rule that the meeting was not properly called and cannot transact any business. The ruling is subject to an appeal, and a majority vote is sufficient to overturn the chair's ruling.

Since this is a public board, I would also advise to consult a lawyer, as it seems there are also applicable laws at work here.