Meeting postponed due to weather

[Guest Tracey]

Our bylaws say our annual election must be held the second week of January. Our meeting was advertised for Tuesday. Due to dangerously bad weather, on Monday we made the announcement to postpone until Wednesday. Now someone is saying we cannot conduct business because our bylaws also say we need five days notice for a meeting. We are at the meeting right now - which rule takes precedence? Thank you

[Hieu H. Huynh]

If the meeting required notice, that requirement would need to be met for the meeting to be valid.

[Richard Brown]

This doesn't help you for now, but next time this happens, one or two members should show up at the appointed time of the cancelled or postponed meeting, have one member call the meeting to order, another member move to set an adjourned meeting for a couple of days distant, adopt it by unanimous consent and then adjourn. Voilà! You have now formally, officially, and legally set an adjourned meeting for two days later. No new notice necessary, but it is a good idea to try to give notice to everyone anyway.

Actually, you can probably do that by having only one member show up, but I suggest for several reasons that it be at least two members.

Edited to add: setting an  adjourned meeting is one of the few things you can do in the absence of a quorum.

Edited January 12, 2017 at 02:05 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Richard Brown]

If your "meeting" is still going on, one member can raise a point of order that the meeting was not properly called and is an illegal meeting. The chair will rule on the point of order. The chair's ruling, whichever way he rules, can be appealed to the assembly. The assembly's decision is final. That's a pretty risky way of doing things though, as somebody at some point in the future may start the fight all over again and claim that the officers are not legitimately elected. It's probably best to either reschedule the elections for the next regular meeting or call a special meeting with proper notice.

[Joshua Katz]

25 minutes ago, Richard Brown said:

This doesn't help you for now, but next time this happens, one or two members should show up at the appointed time of the cancelled or postponed meeting, have one member call the meeting to order, another member move to set an adjourned meeting for a couple of days distant, adopt it by unanimous consent and then adjourn. Voilà! You have now formally, officially, and legally set an adjourned meeting for two days later. No new notice necessary, but it is a good idea to try to give notice to everyone anyway.

Actually, you can probably do that by having only one member show up, but I suggest for several reasons that it be at least two members.

Edited to add: setting an  adjourned meeting is one of the few things you can do in the absence of a quorum.

Just like the US Senate does!