Violation of Board Members Rights

[KeithG]

What can a Board member do when their rights were violated by the President by not being notified of a Board meeting? All Board members are aware of the violation, yet no one speaks up to the President.  

[Joshua Katz]

Raise a point of order at the next meeting that the previous meeting was not properly noticed (assuming, of course, that this is true). The President will probably rule otherwise, so be prepared to appeal.

[KeithG]

Unfortunately, the President has disregarded Parliamentary Procedure and our Board members do not understand it nor willing to educate themselves with it.  An appeal would be on deaf ears.  

[Joshua Katz]

Well, then I don't see what sort of solution you're looking for. The issue could be taken to the membership, either through discipline, an effort to remove the President via a bylaws clause about "until their successors are elected," or simply an election, but if the board doesn't care, perhaps the membership doesn't either.

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, KeithG said:

Unfortunately, the President has disregarded Parliamentary Procedure and our Board members do not understand it nor willing to educate themselves with it.  An appeal would be on deaf ears.  

It is unfortunate that the board members do not understand nor are willing to educate themselves regarding parliamentary procedure, but I don't think someone actually needs to know much of anything about parliamentary procedure to know that it's wrong to exclude a board member from a board meeting. You might point out that if they don't rein in this behavior, there's nothing stopping the President from leaving them out of meetings too.

In any event, if the appeal still fails, then I suppose the next step would be to take the issue to the membership. If they don't care either, you're out of parliamentary options. There might be legal recourse, but that would be a question for an attorney, not this forum.

Edited July 24, 2020 at 01:16 AM by Josh Martin

[Guest Susie]

Was this a special meeting? Many times board meetings are set for time and place at the first meeting, I. E. Second Tues of each month. In that case, no one would remind you;  it is each member’s responsibility to put it on their own calendar. 

[Josh Martin]

2 hours ago, Guest Susie said:

Many times board meetings are set for time and place at the first meeting, I. E. Second Tues of each month. In that case, no one would remind you;  it is each member’s responsibility to put it on their own calendar. 

That is not correct. If regular meetings are set by resolution, notice must be sent for each meeting unless the organization's bylaws provide otherwise. It is only if the date of the regular meetings are specified in the bylaws that no notice is required (although it is still generally a best practice).

"The term regular meeting (or stated meeting) refers to the periodic business meeting of a permanent society, local branch, or board, held at weekly, monthly, quarterly, or similar intervals, for which the day (as, "the first Tuesday of each month") should be prescribed by the bylaws and the hour and place should be fixed by a standing rule. If, instead, an organization follows the practice of scheduling the dates of its regular meetings by resolution, notice must be sent to all members in advance of each regular meeting, and the number of days' notice required should be prescribed by the bylaws (p. 576)." (RONR, 11th ed., pg. 89)

I assume that Mr. G is referring to a special meeting, however, particularly since he has asked about this topic before, and in that case it was clear that the meetings in question were called by the President and were called for a specific purpose - in other words, a special meeting.

Edited July 25, 2020 at 09:35 PM by Josh Martin