AGM meeting minutes ratification

[Guest Seanf1129]

Sorry folks, I'm fairly new to RONR and am still learning the intricacies. We have our AGM coming up soon and was told by the previous President that we need to ratify the previous years business. How exactly is that done and what do I need to do to prepare as the new President? Thanks!

[Chris Harrison]

I am not sure what the previous President meant by you need to "ratify the previous year's business."  If his impression is that any actions taken are only valid when the minutes are approved then he is incorrect as the minutes are merely a record of what was done at a meeting (RONR p. 468 ll. 14-16).  As for how to approve the minutes see RONR pp. 354-355 and pp. 473-475.

 

As for being a new President I would HIGHLY recommend you get a copy of RONR (11th Edition) and give it a good reading.  Some highlights would be Point of Order and Appeal (RONR pp. 247-260), the Standard Order of Business (RONR pp. 353-360), the duties of President (RONR pp. 448-457 with a focus on pp. 454-456 which discusses suggestions for inexperienced presiding officers).  There probably are other highlights that others will suggest so stay tuned.

[jstackpo]

"Robert's Rules ... In Brief" Is another very good starting point. See the sidebar on the home page for how to get a copy.

[Guest Edgar]

As for how to approve the minutes see RONR pp. 354-355 and pp. 473-475.

 

Where you're likely to learn that you shouldn't wait a year. Three months tops.

[Josh Martin]

Three months tops.

 

Not exactly. A quarterly interval can be up to nearly four months. For instance, January 1 and April 30 are within a quarterly interval of each other.

[Guest Edgar]

A quarterly interval can be up to nearly four months. 

 

Well, with a schedule like that you'll never fit four quarterly intervals into one year. I'll stick with recommending three months (sooner is better than later, no?).

[Josh Martin]

Well, with a schedule like that you'll never fit four quarterly intervals into one year. I'll stick with recommending three months (sooner is better than later, no?).

 

Recommend what you like, but this is the definition of a quarterly interval in RONR.

 

"In this book, it is understood that no more than a quarterly time interval intervenes between two sessions if the second session begins at any time during or before the third calendar month after the calendar month in which the first session ends. For example, with reference to a session held in January, no more than a quarterly time interval has elapsed since the previous session if that session ended on or after October 1st of the preceding calendar year; and no more than a quarterly time interval will elapse before the next session if that session will begin on or before April 30th of the current year." (RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 89-90)

 

This may seem odd, but assemblies often schedule their meetings based on the day of the week rather than on the date of the month, since this tends to work better to avoid conflicts with members' schedules. Consider the following example:

 

"The Society shall meet on the second Saturday in February, May, August, and November." That seems quite clearly like an assembly which meets quarterly. Using the definition in RONR, this will work fine. If a quarterly interval is defined simply as "three months," however, the assembly runs into problems. In 2014, the meetings would be on the following dates - February 8th, May 10th, August 9th, and November 8th. To show how big an issue this can become, the first meeting of the next year would be February 14th, 2015. So if a quarterly interval was defined as "three months," then the next regular meeting may or may not be within a quarterly interval, depending on how the calendar dates fall.