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Meeting Notice


Guest James Garrett

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In our committee's bylaws in the Article covering Meetings we say in 'Section 1, Schedule of Meetings' the following:  "The Executive Committee shall set its meeting schedule."  In 'Section 6, Notice' we say: "Notice of all meetings of the Executive Committee shall be given in writing with at least five (5) business days notice."  Typically we meet monthly.  In January it is customary for the committee to set the schedule such as "the second Tuesday of each month."  Given this customary practice I have a couple of questions:

1.)  Is it necessary for the Secretary to send a notice to the members each month of the meeting?

2.)  On the occasion there is a major conflict with an event (such as a holiday or an statewide election) does the Chairman have the authority to postpone the meeting to another time?

3.)  Given the setting of the schedule in January is that sufficient notice for June or July's meeting or any other month for that matter?

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41 minutes ago, Guest James Garrett said:

1.)  Is it necessary for the Secretary to send a notice to the members each month of the meeting?

Notice is required to be sent to all committee members.

41 minutes ago, Guest James Garrett said:

2.)  On the occasion there is a major conflict with an event (such as a holiday or an statewide election) does the Chairman have the authority to postpone the meeting to another time?

It is my opinion that this is possible because it involves the issue of the committee's and assembly's internal politics. In other words, if something goes wrong then the committee chairman takes the hit. Be aware that other experts in this field will be opposed to this concept and you will see the list of reasons why.

1 hour ago, Guest James Garrett said:

3.)  Given the setting of the schedule in January is that sufficient notice for June or July's meeting or any other month for that matter?

Notice is still required. I know of some organizations that hold regular business meetings on say the first Wednesday of the month and send no notices to members other than an announcement in a bulletin or something posted on a bulletin board near the entrance. But that is how they roll.

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4 hours ago, Guest Zev said:

It is my opinion that this is possible because it involves the issue of the committee's and assembly's internal politics. In other words, if something goes wrong then the committee chairman takes the hit. Be aware that other experts in this field will be opposed to this concept and you will see the list of reasons why.

5 hours ago, Guest James Garrett said:

If the committee (which I suspect may be a board) adopted a motion  setting the schedule, I don't see why the chair could unilaterally amend it simply because it involves "internal politics." 

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6 hours ago, Guest James Garrett said:

1.)  Is it necessary for the Secretary to send a notice to the members each month of the meeting?

A notice must be sent to the members of the Executive Committee for each meeting, as provided by your bylaws, which state that “Notice of all meetings of the Executive Committee shall be given in writing with at least five (5) business days notice.

6 hours ago, Guest James Garrett said:

2.)  On the occasion there is a major conflict with an event (such as a holiday or an statewide election) does the Chairman have the authority to postpone the meeting to another time?

No. Your bylaws provide that "The Executive Committee shall set its meeting schedule." The Chairman does not have the authority to modify that schedule. The Executive Committee may modify the schedule at a previous meeting, or it may set an adjourned meeting at the meeting itself. The latter option is in order even in the absence of a quorum.

6 hours ago, Guest James Garrett said:

3.)  Given the setting of the schedule in January is that sufficient notice for June or July's meeting or any other month for that matter?

No. Notice must be sent for all meetings of the Executive Committee, since that is what your bylaws provide. If your organization wishes to no longer send notices for all meetings of the Executive Committee, it will be necessary to amend the bylaws to remove the rule in question.

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9 minutes ago, Josh Martin said:

No. Notice must be sent for all meetings of the Executive Committee, since that is what your bylaws provide. If your organization wishes to no longer send notices for all meetings of the Executive Committee, it will be necessary to amend the bylaws to remove the rule in question.

The rules in RONR provide that the day of each regular meeting should be prescribed in the bylaws, and if this is not done, that notice must be sent to all members in advance of each regular meeting. (RONR, 11th ed. p. 89, ll. 5-15)

It would appear, therefore, that in addition to amending the bylaws to remove the rule requiring that notice be sent, it will also be necessary to have the bylaws themselves fix the date on which regular meetings are to be held.

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My question would be what would constitute a proper notice.

At the properly held, and properly noticed, January 2019 meeting, the Board sets its meeting as being on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 PM at the clubhouse.

On January 20, 2019, the secretary sends out the meeting notice as such:

"The February 2019 regular meeting shall be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 2/12/19 at the clubhouse.

The March 2019 regular meeting shall be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 3/12/19 at the clubhouse.

The April 2019 regular meeting shall be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 4/9/19 at the clubhouse.

The May 2019 regular meeting shall be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 5/14/19 at the clubhouse."

This pattern continues until the final entry,  "The December 2019 regular meeting shall be held at 7:30 PM on Tuesday 12/10/19 at the clubhouse."

I would question if this would be an invalid notice, even of the meetings after the February regular meeting.  Notice of each regular meeting has been sent in advance "in writing with at least five (5) business days notice." Separate notice has not been sent out, but I do not see a requirement that the notice must be separate, merely that it be sent no later than a specific number of days.

If anyone says that this method of sending notice is inadvisable, I will agree.  My question is does this method would actually cause the notice of the March through December meetings to to be invalid.

 

[I will note that some organizations do put a maximum the when the notice can be sent in their bylaws, e.g. , "Notice of all meetings of the Executive Committee shall be given in writing with at least five (5), but not more than thirty (30), business days notice."  At times, I have question why such a maximum rule is necessary, but can now see its practical purpose.]   

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J.J. raises an interesting question, one that I had in mind as I was reading the original question.  Ultimately this might be a matter of bylaws interpretation for the society itself to decide, but I tend believe the scenario and type notice JJ referred to above would constitute proper notice.  That might not be the best practice, but I believe it is a permissible practice.

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Gentlemen,  

Again, thank you for your responses.  Mr. Katz you are correct we are probably a board; however, we call ourselves an executive committee.  J.J. you raise an interesting twist to the question of notice.  Other than the simple sentence I mentioned in my initial post we do not stipulate in our bylaws when or what time to hold meetings.  Nor does our secretary send anything like the exact wording you mention in your response.  Therefore, I would take the monthly notice which we typically see as being required.

Concerning the question of the Chairman's authority to change the meeting date or time, upon reflection I realized, as Mr. Martin suggested, we (the committee) usually realize there will be a conflict the next month and do discuss the alternatives at the present meeting.  Before we adjourn we usually reach a consensus as to the best time to hold the next month's meeting.  We still get the notice based upon the modified schedule.  Of the nine meetings we have held this year we have had to reschedule four of them due to conflicts.  Of these four only one had to be rescheduled a second time because of "internal policies" and that was an sudden unexpected conflict caused by an outside source.  Elsewhere in our bylaws under the subject of 'Special Meetings' we give the chairman this authority:  "Special meetings of the Executive Committee may be called by the Chairman at his discretion."  I am not sure just how this impacts my initial question but I feel we probably are in compliance with the intent of Robert's if not the exact wording.  Any additional discussion would be considered with appreciation.  

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1 minute ago, Guest James Garrett said:

Concerning the question of the Chairman's authority to change the meeting date or time, upon reflection I realized, as Mr. Martin suggested, we (the committee) usually realize there will be a conflict the next month and do discuss the alternatives at the present meeting.  Before we adjourn we usually reach a consensus as to the best time to hold the next month's meeting.

Then all should be cleared up if you then adopt a motion.

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1 hour ago, Guest James Garrett said:

Of these four only one had to be rescheduled a second time because of "internal policies" and that was an sudden unexpected conflict caused by an outside source.  Elsewhere in our bylaws under the subject of 'Special Meetings' we give the chairman this authority:  "Special meetings of the Executive Committee may be called by the Chairman at his discretion.

This changes nothing. The fact that the Chairman has the authority to call special meetings does not also grant him the authority to cancel regular meetings. The Executive Committee certainly may reschedule meetings (as it has apparently done on several occasions), but the Chairman may not.

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