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What constitutes a meeting having been held?


Guest Sarah Antenora

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3 minutes ago, Guest Sarah Antenora said:

Just curious about what makes a meeting... Call to order, Roll call, Reading of minutes, Discussion of business old and new, adjournment? anything more? something less? 

The standard order of business is discussed in RONR (12th ed.) 41:5-36, if that is what you are asking.

If your question is simply what constitutes a meeting being held, a call to order and adjournment will do the trick, although a meeting usually includes more than that, unless there are unusual circumstances (such as a quorum not being present).

Edited by Josh Martin
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1 hour ago, Guest Sarah Antenora said:

Just curious about what makes a meeting... Call to order, Roll call, Reading of minutes, Discussion of business old and new, adjournment? anything more? something less? 

A good deal less.

The bare minimum for a meeting to be considered held is a call to order and adjournment.

If a quorum was not present when the meeting was called to order, and there seemed little prospect that one could be obtained, then that might be the entire meeting in a nutshell--a small nutshell.  But it still counts as a meeting, so that if your bylaws mandated that a meeting must be held on such-and-such a date, it counts.  Minutes would also be recorded, and would be similarly brief.

If your bylaws mandated that a meeting must be held and particular business handled at that meeting, then the lack of a quorum would be a problem.  In that case the meeting could be adjourned to (meet at) a future time, when a quorum might be more easily obtained.  That's one of the motions that can be made without a quorum present.  

The other allowable motions mostly apply to taking steps to obtain a quorum. 

See: RONR 12th ed. 40:7

 

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2 hours ago, Guest Sarah Antenora said:

Just curious about what makes a meeting... Call to order, Roll call, Reading of minutes, Discussion of business old and new, adjournment? anything more? something less? 

Agreeing with my colleagues, if your organization requires that members attend a certain number of meetings, then, absent a contrary provision in your rues,  a short (often very short) meeting of the type discussed by Mr. Martin and Mr. Novosielski is still a meeting and if a member Jill Jones is present, she is present for purposes of having attended that meeting.  To the contrary, if member Jack Jones is not present at that meeting, he has indeed not attended that meeting.

It is not correct to say  "we didn't meet (or couldn't meet) because we did not have a quorum".  To the contrary, the meeting should indeed take place, it will just be a very short meeting likely with no business having been conducted other than calling the meeting to order and then adjourning.  Of course, the four actions described in RONR as being permissible in the absence of a quorum may be done in the absence of a quorum:  Recess (to wait for more members to arrive), Take Action to obtain a quorum (calling absent members), Fix the Time to Which to Adjourn (setting an adjourned meeting for another day), and to adjourn.

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18 hours ago, Josh Martin said:

The standard order of business is discussed in RONR (12th ed.) 41:5-36, if that is what you are asking.

If your question is simply what constitutes a meeting being held, a call to order and adjournment will do the trick, although a meeting usually includes more than that, unless there are unusual circumstances (such as a quorum not being present).

Agreeing, I will add that even a meeting held in the unusual circumstances being described will generate minutes. 

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