Missing Pandemic Meetings

[AFS1970]

As with many organizations we have missed several meetings due to social distancing orders by our state. Our Bylaws are silent on this. We have just announced that we will resume having meetings in July. Two of the missing meetings were our nomination meeting (May) and our annual meeting  (June) where we hold elections. Our officers serve until their replacements are elected so at least that black hole has been avoided. I have heard that the President plans on holding a regular meeting, nothing fancy. I asked the person who told me this what would make a meeting fancy and was told that would be nominations.

Informally there have been two ideas put forth in discussions among members, one that we start the July meeting as if nothing happened except missing elections and hold nominations in July then Elections in August. The other idea was that we start with the first missing meeting that would have been march. That would then postpone elections until December. 

I am not sure who if anyone has the authority to decide these issues. We also have another issue in that for some reason our bylaws have different voting rules for our annual meeting than other meetings. Since the bylaws say the annual meeting is in June, and due to the pandemic we can't hold it before August, which set of voting rules would apply?

[Josh Martin]

41 minutes ago, AFS1970 said:

Informally there have been two ideas put forth in discussions among members, one that we start the July meeting as if nothing happened except missing elections and hold nominations in July then Elections in August. The other idea was that we start with the first missing meeting that would have been march. That would then postpone elections until December. 

I am not sure who if anyone has the authority to decide these issues.

The idea that the assembly would "start with the first missing meeting that would have been march. That would then postpone elections until December." frankly seems quite bizarre to me. Generally, if elections are unable to be held at the scheduled time, they should be completed as soon as possible thereafter. Therefore, the idea that the assembly would "hold nominations in July then Elections in August" seems to be the appropriate course of action. Depending on the exact wording of the bylaws regarding these matters, it may (or may not) also be an option to condense the nominations and elections into a single meeting.

The membership is who has the authority to decide these issues.

45 minutes ago, AFS1970 said:

We also have another issue in that for some reason our bylaws have different voting rules for our annual meeting than other meetings. Since the bylaws say the annual meeting is in June, and due to the pandemic we can't hold it before August, which set of voting rules would apply?

It will ultimately be up to the organization to interpret its own bylaws, and I would note that I have not seen the exact wording of the rule in question. Generally, however, I would think it would be more likely that the rules in question are in effect for the annual meeting rather than for the month of June specifically, and therefore the rules would still be in effect in the event the annual meeting is held in a different month.