Suspended meeting

[Guest Sara]

At a church meeting, we voted on some items on the agenda and the rest of the items were suspended until a later meeting.  The date of the upcoming meeting was not stated at the close of the meeting.  Now the church council says that they can't move on the voted items until the other items are voted on.  Is this correct?

[Richard Brown]

No, it is absolutely not correct.   The items that were adopted at the meeting are in full force and effect.  What rationale/excuse is being used to say they can't act on the items already adopted?

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

You should review the church bylaws to see what they say about regular meetings of the members and the authority of the council, which it is quite possibly overstepping.

[Guest Sara]

We voted to allocate funds ($350,000) to certain organizations and the council president says that we can't pay these organizations until the suspended meeting is held and the additional business is taken care of.  The vote to allocate these funds was taken by written ballot and the motion passed with 3/4 of the congregation voting in favor of giving these organizations the money.  The council was not in favor of the motion and I think they are going to try to stop it.  I don't know how, but I'm expecting them to try something, so I want to be prepared in case this happens.

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

Keep in mind that, at a meeting of members, the "council" is not present as a body. Its members may be present and participate if they are also members of the church at large, but the council itself does not play a privileged role. Nor does the President have any special power other than to preside. If the council does not have exclusive authority over this kind of spending decision, according to your rules, then it must carry out the dictates of the membership or face possible disciplinary measures.

[Richard Brown]

Guest Sara, I am still at a loss as to the basis for the claim that the adopted items aren't in effect yet.  Is the claim that adopted motions don't take effect until all other motions on the agenda have been adopted?  If that is the theory, it is hogwash.  An adopted motion becomes effective the instant it is adopted.

[Guest Zev]

Sara, please answer Mr. Brown's question. I am also curious as to whether the postponed (we do not use the expression "suspended" for this type of action) items are somehow related to the one that were voted on. If they are somehow related then it might be understandable why the council has balked. If they are not related then I would contemplate a motion to "Resolved, to hereby order the council to immediately disburse the funds to the various organizations as voted on (insert the date and possibly other details)."