Issue for upcoming meeting related to Covid

[Guest Allison Moreland]

We have a situation in which our annual Plenary meeting of the Assembly is happening on April 8. In normal years, we have held this meeting in mid-March. During this meeting, we vote on changes to our bylaws and other governance issues. This year, we have proposed bylaw changes that will impact the membership of standing committees. However, our bylaws state that we must elect members of standing committees by April 1 to start their terms on June 1. Is there a procedure we can use to modify, for this year only, that April 1 date to May 1?

Thanks so much. I have been searching and I’m pretty sure the answer is no we can’t change it, but as a new parliamentarian, I was not in place when the decision to change the meeting was made.

 

Best,

Allison

[Josh Martin]

8 minutes ago, Guest Allison Moreland said:

We have a situation in which our annual Plenary meeting of the Assembly is happening on April 8. In normal years, we have held this meeting in mid-March. During this meeting, we vote on changes to our bylaws and other governance issues. This year, we have proposed bylaw changes that will impact the membership of standing committees. However, our bylaws state that we must elect members of standing committees by April 1 to start their terms on June 1. Is there a procedure we can use to modify, for this year only, that April 1 date to May 1?

Thanks so much. I have been searching and I’m pretty sure the answer is no we can’t change it, but as a new parliamentarian, I was not in place when the decision to change the meeting was made.

The only way to change this would be to amend the bylaws, or to adopt a proviso relating to the transition for the bylaw amendments (if it is desired for the change to be temporary). Provisos are discussed in RONR (12th ed.) 57:15-17. The problem is that the deadline occurs prior to the time at which the bylaws will be amended.

[Allison Moreland]

Thank you. I think we could have a motion to amend the bylaws to state that the elections must be complete by [some date in the future] with the proviso that this change expires on 6/1 with the start of the new governance year with a simple majority.

[Richard Brown]

2 hours ago, Guest Allison Moreland said:

Is there a procedure we can use to modify, for this year only, that April 1 date to May 1?

Yes and no. As Mr. Martin has stated, from a parliamentary standpoint I don’t see how you can do this. However, if you don’t have your annual meeting until April 8, Or even on May 1, nothing terrible is going to happen that I can see. Yes, you are supposed to have your annual meeting by April 1 and you should try your best to do so. However, If circumstances prevent you from doing so and you are not able to hold the meeting until April 8 or even May 1, just hold it then (or as soon as you can) and move on. The organization does not magically cease to exist if the annual meeting isn’t held by April 1.

Theoretically, I suppose certain officers or board members could be disciplined for failure to hold the meeting by the date specified in the bylaws,  but I rather doubt that with the pandemic going on that any such thing would happen if it is really impossible or highly impractical to have the meeting by April 1.

[Guest yes and no]

Thank you for the clarification.