Membership and Board Meetings

[Guest John Beaudet]

As a member of a small non-profit whose by-laws state that we follow Roberts Rules I am told that our monthly meetings are Board Meetings, except for the Annual Meeting which is a general membership meeting. These monthly meetings are open to the general membership but only board members are allowed to make or second a motion. I feel this is not fair to the members not on the board to have only one opportunity each year to make a motion. Is this proper to call nearly all meetings board meetings and thereby exclude members from pushing an issue in front of the group?

[Josh Martin]

20 minutes ago, Guest John Beaudet said:

As a member of a small non-profit whose by-laws state that we follow Roberts Rules I am told that our monthly meetings are Board Meetings, except for the Annual Meeting which is a general membership meeting. These monthly meetings are open to the general membership but only board members are allowed to make or second a motion. I feel this is not fair to the members not on the board to have only one opportunity each year to make a motion. Is this proper to call nearly all meetings board meetings and thereby exclude members from pushing an issue in front of the group?

An organization may establish whatever frequency of meetings for the board and for the membership that it wishes. It is not unusual to have a society where the membership only meets annually. I would first check your bylaws to confirm that it is in fact correct that the membership only meets annually and the board meets monthly. Assuming this is correct, if you wish to change this so that the membership meets more frequently, the proper course of action would be to amend the bylaws.

Edited June 14, 2019 at 05:38 PM by Josh Martin