Change of Location of Conference

[Mark Apodaca, PRP]

Hello all.  Hope you are all safe and healthy.

I was approached by the President and Vice President of an organization.  The organization was planning to have its conference in Minneapolis in August 2020 and Philadelphia in 2022.  The locations were voted by the membership during a previous conference.  Because of COVID-19, the board decided to cancel the Minneapolis conference and move it to 2024.  The Minneapolis chapter opposed the board's decision and wanted their conference in 2022 and Philadelphia moved to 2024.

I told the President and Vice President that this should be decided by the membership because the membership passed the motion to have the conference in Philadelphia.  When the membership has its annual meeting in August 2020 through Zoom, in order to have the location changed, a member will need to make a motion "amend something previously adopted" to strike out Philadelphia and insert Minneapolis.  If the motion passes, then Minneapolis has it and the membership will need to decide which city will have 2024.

Am I overlooking anything?

Mark

[Guest Zev]

Perhaps, if there is time, the membership can be polled before the board takes such a drastic step.

[Josh Martin]

12 hours ago, Mark Apodaca said:

I told the President and Vice President that this should be decided by the membership because the membership passed the motion to have the conference in Philadelphia.  When the membership has its annual meeting in August 2020 through Zoom, in order to have the location changed, a member will need to make a motion "amend something previously adopted" to strike out Philadelphia and insert Minneapolis.  If the motion passes, then Minneapolis has it and the membership will need to decide which city will have 2024.

Am I overlooking anything?

Well, first, I suppose I will assume for the sake of argument that the organization's bylaws authorize it to meet electronically, or failing that, that the organization understands the risks in making decisions in this manner and intends to ratify the subsequent actions by the board, officers, and committees to carry out this decision.

Setting the electronic meeting issue aside, yes, I agree that what you describe is the proper procedure and you do not appear to be overlooking anything.