Church wants to hold multiple meetings for annual vote on budget

[Guest Tom Council]

Our church has been holding an annual meeting to vote on the budget.  The meeting has been held at the end of each of four services over the weekend.  A ballot vote is taken at each meeting. They are held and tabulated at the end of the 4th meeting.

an announcement of the meeting purpose and timings is announced more than two weeks ahead.  

Is this a proper way to handle a session with several meetings?

[Rob Elsman]

I'm just guessing, but it sounds like the church has special rules for the voting, in this particular case, to make more certain that all members have the opportunity to vote, since it is not uncommon for members to miss church services now and again for good or not-so-good reasons.

[Atul Kapur]

This is similar to what is done with some unions to accommodate members who, due to shiftwork, cannot all attend at one time.

It does violate the principle that every member should be able hear every other member in a meeting and the idea that there may be debate that could influence the vote, so your bylaws should authorize such a form of making decisions. And you should specify the rules for such decision-making.

One important point is that everyone should be voting on the same thing. That is, the budget cannot be amended at any but the first meeting. You should have provisions in your rules prohibiting amendments at these particular meetings.

Do you have a process where members can debate and amend the budget before these 4 meetings? 

There may be other things you need to consider. For example, is there anything else that comes up at these meetings, such as  a report from the spiritual leader and/or the lay leaders? How are they dealt with?