Meeting time limit

[Guest Steve_Guest]

The bylaws say "The Annual Meeting shall be held in March, at a time and place set by the Board of Directors."  The Board sets the meeting for 7pm March 31st.  As midnight approaches there are still several items of business remaining.  A member moves to set an adjourned meeting for noon the following day, April 1st.  The Chair rules the motion out of order.  The member appeals, but the Chair responds that no appeal is possible, since the bylaws require the meeting be "in March."

Is the ruling correct?

[Dan Honemann]

The bylaws say "The Annual Meeting shall be held in March, at a time and place set by the Board of Directors."  The Board sets the meeting for 7pm March 31st.  As midnight approaches there are still several items of business remaining.  A member moves to set an adjourned meeting for noon the following day, April 1st.  The Chair rules the motion out of order.  The member appeals, but the Chair responds that no appeal is possible, since the bylaws require the meeting be "in March."

Is the ruling correct?

 

No, I think the chair's ruling that no appeal was allowable was incorrect.

[jstackpo]

Sounds wacky to me.

 

And what is the Chair going to do, close the meeting down at midnight when the calendar rolls over anyway?

[Hieu H. Huynh]

Although this may be a matter of bylaws interpretation, perhaps the following citation from RONR may be of use:

 

"Business that is required to be attended to "at the annual meeting" can be taken up at any time (when it is in order) during the session of the annual meeting, or, in other words, either at that meeting as originally convened or at any adjournment of it." (p. 95, ll. 4-8)

[Richard Brown]

The chair made two errors on that issue.  I think the citation by Mr. Huynh above shows pretty conclusively that the ruling of the chair that that an adjourned meeting would violate the bylaws was erroneous.  Likewise, his refusal to allow an appeal on that ruling was in error.  The assembly itself, not the chair, is the final arbiter of whether an action would violate the bylaws.  His ruling that an adjourned meeting would violate the bylaws was appealable.