Changing meeting location

[Guest Linda B.]

A notice was posted on the exterior door of the hall where our regular meeting is held changing the location--is this permitted?

[Guest Edgar]

A notice was posted on the exterior door of the hall where our regular meeting is held changing the location--is this permitted?

Probably not.

Who posted the notice? (In other words, by whose authority was the location changed?)

How long before the meeting was the notice posted?

How was the meeting location originally established?

How far away from the original location is the new location?

(Note: not all of these questions are equally relevant.)

[Tim Wynn]

A notice was posted on the exterior door of the hall where our regular meeting is held changing the location--is this permitted?

RONR doesn't provide for changing the location of a meeting by posting on a door.

[Guest Linda B.]

Meetings are always the second Tues of the month, same time, place. A calendar of meeting dates for 2012 was sent to all members in January. The person who cleared each day contacted the person who posted the change. When and why is still unknown.

The person who works in the building where the meetings are held posted the notice 20 mins prior to the meeting. While on my way to the location (15 mins. prior to start time) a different general member phoned to tell me (a member of the Board) of the change. I in turn called the Pres, who was also "just notified" and equally livid with the change.

The alternative location was in the other direction about 10-15 minutes away in a small, ill-suited room not large enough or set for a meeting.

We also had a special speaker who was also notified while in his car driving.

The Board was made to appear responsible for this when none had anything to do with the sudden change.

It should be noted, the person who posted the notice is an angry and destructive ex-pres who, along with the other ousted board members, has caused problems for the new board repeatedly.

(All answers may not be relevant.)

[Guest Guest]

Where in RONR can I print my back-up doc for calling a meeting. Our normal procedure is an email one week prior with time, location and agenda.

[Guest Edgar]

(All answers may not be relevant.)

Well, in hindsight I think you should have disregarded the notice and met as planned. Assuming you didn't, I'm not sure what else can be done at this point other than to somehow "punish" the member (assuming he's a member) who posted the notice. And advise everyone to, in the future, disregard notices posted on doors (though, on second thought, that may not always be the best advice!).

In any event, I think this is an issue you can work out without relying on RONR.

[Tim Wynn]

I am consistently amazed at the credence given to signs that are hung vertically from various structures.

Option 1 is to crumple the paper and give it a careful toss to the nearest waste receptacle.

Option 2 is to fashion your own sign that preempts the other.

If you persist with this reverence for signs, you may be led on a chase so long that the geese will be tame by the time you get there.

[Gary c Tesser]

...

There is some merit, perhaps overly idealistic, in presupposing that people are honest, well-intentioned, and competent, until shown to be otherwise. (See the first paragraph of Chapter Twenty, "Disciplinary {Procedures.")

In this instance, from what we have been told, the posted sign was an indefensible and intolerable sabotage of the functioning of the organization. (I will note that we have only one side of the story -- no offense, Guest_Linda B.) It's not happenstance that I'm looking at Chapter Twenty.

[Tim Wynn]

There is some merit, perhaps overly idealistic, in presupposing that people are honest, well-intentioned, and competent, until shown to be otherwise.

You find those geese, yet?

[Guest Linda B.]

Thanks, everyone...sorry it took me so long to check back, but I have sure had a good laugh and gleaned much from each of you (read some of those late-night posts!)

I like Edgar's response quite well: should have just had the meeting.

Loved the short dissertation on signage. Provocative.

Gary, quite astute. As much as a trouble-maker this ex-pres is, this may have just been a clusterf... of events handled poorly. However, we are still relocating the meetings to remove that self-imposed power. I am also on the by laws committee and will add the need for the committee to meet to address location of meetings (we only state "they may change" and left nothing to describe action thereof) and perhaps who can cancel--that was the discussion that had me laughing. Interesting reading.

[Weldon Merritt]

I can envision scenarios in which, for one reason or another, the meeting cannot be held at the scheduled location, and that fact does not become known until shortly before the meeting (too late to change the location through the normal means). (For example,a club I used to belong to arrived at the restauarant at which we had been having our breakfast meeting, and found it permanently closed, with no prior notice to anyone.) But even then, the best course of action would be for at least a few members to meet at (or as close as possible to) the original location, convene the meeting, and adjourn to another place and time. Then a legitinmate notice (citing the adopted motiion) can be posted on the door for anyone who might not have heard of the change.

[George Mervosh]

I can envision scenarios in which, for one reason or another, the meeting cannot be held at the scheduled location, and that fact does not become known until shortly before the meeting (too late to change the location through the normal means). (For example,a club I used to belong to arrived at the restauarant at which we had been having our breakfast meeting, and found it permanently closed, with no prior notice to anyone.) But even then, the best course of action would be for at least a few members to meet at (or as close as possible to) the original location, convene the meeting, and adjourn to another place and time. Then a legitinmate notice (citing the adopted motiion) can be posted on the door for anyone who might not have heard of the change.

That's strikingly similar to the facts in an opinion I remember reading from the AIP Opinions Committee when Mr. Evans was a part of it......With Linda B's facts (a disgruntled member posted the notice to wreak havoc) that opinion wouldn't apply, but with Weldon's it might. I'll have to find that book this evening to make sure I'm not dreaming it up.

[Gary Novosielski]

We've done exactly that too, at a board of education that I'm on. The room we were scheduled to meet in (the cafeteria) in was uninhabitable for some reason, so two people (the president and I) went to the cafeteria door, convened the meeting, moved to adjourn to the library, and posted a note to that effect on the door.