Posting a Special Meeting

[Dendra Best]

Can you confirm please that if 2 members call for a Special Meeting for a specific purpose, as our Bylaws allow, the Posting to the Members includes:

That a Special Meeting has been called for

Those Directors who called for it

The specific purpose

Date and time

How to access by Zoom

Do we have to include a notice that the meeting may go in to closed session?

[Atul Kapur]

"Notice of the time, place, and purpose of the meeting, clearly and specifically describing the subject matter of the motions or items of business to be brought up, must be sent to all members a reasonable number of days in advance." RONR (12th ed.) 9:13

RONR does not require that the notice include, "Those Directors who called for it." There is no prohibition on including that information, but it is not required by RONR.

Are electronic meetings by Zoom authorized by your bylaws or relevant statute? If so, then giving information on how to connect is analogous to the requirement that notice include the place of the meeting.

Any meeting may decide to go into closed session. I don't see any harm in including that in the notice if there is a particular expectation that that will happen.

If your bylaws or other rules have more specific terms (e.g., the specific number of days notice required) then they, of course, supersede RONR.

[Dendra Best]

I'm looking at Newly revised in brief 3rd edition: Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at theat meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense. [RONR 12th ed.) 10.51

[Dendra Best]

On 4/6/2022 at 12:10 PM, Dendra Best said:

I'm looking at Newly revised in brief 3rd edition: Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at theat meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense. [RONR 12th ed.) 10.51

Example of Call of a Meeting
The regular monthly meeting of the Student Coalition will be held on Tuesday, January 11, 20_, at 8:30 P.M., in the Martyn Room of the University Center.
Ashley McClellan has given notice that at the meeting she will move to rescind the resolution adopted March 10, 20_, relating

 

[Joshua Katz]

On 4/6/2022 at 6:10 PM, Dendra Best said:

I'm looking at Newly revised in brief 3rd edition: Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at theat meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense. [RONR 12th ed.) 10.51

Have we changed topics? Previous notice of a motion is not quite the same as the call of a special meeting.

[Dendra Best]

Not really Joshua - it goes to how to properly give notice of a Call for and publication of a Special Meeting.

[Richard Brown]

RONR in Brief gives very little information on special meetings.  If you have the third edition, the information on page 145 re the "call" of a meeting is as close as it comes.  For more information on special meetings, how they are called, notice requirements, and the subject matter that may be taken up, you really need the "big book", RONR (12th ed.).  Special meetings are covered primarily in sections 9:13 - 9:16

Edited to add:  Any provisions in your bylaws regarding special meetings will have to be followed and will trump the rules in RONR.

Edited April 7, 2022 at 01:23 AM by Richard Brown
Added last paragraph

[Atul Kapur]

On 4/6/2022 at 6:10 PM, Dendra Best said:

I'm looking at Newly revised in brief 3rd edition: Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at theat meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense. [RONR 12th ed.) 10.51

 

On 4/6/2022 at 7:32 PM, Joshua Katz said:

Have we changed topics? Previous notice of a motion is not quite the same as the call of a special meeting.

 

On 4/6/2022 at 7:34 PM, Dendra Best said:

Not really Joshua - it goes to how to properly give notice of a Call for and publication of a Special Meeting.

What you have quoted ("Ashley McClellan has given notice that at the meeting she will move to rescind the resolution adopted March 10, 20_, relating") is a Notice of Motion. That is different from the notice required for a special meeting.

"The requirement that business transacted at a special meeting be specified in the call should not be confused with a requirement that previous notice of a motion be given. Although the call of a special meeting must state the purpose of the meeting, it need not give the exact content of individual motions that will be considered." RONR (12th ed.) 9:16

[Dendra Best]

But our Bylaws say we must use the most recent edition? That section is from the 13th.?

Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at that meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense."

[Dan Honemann]

On 4/7/2022 at 2:12 PM, Dendra Best said:

But our Bylaws say we must use the most recent edition? That section is from the 13th.?

Notice of Meetings - ..."any member who wishes to give "previous notice" of a motion he or she intends to propose at that meeting may send the notice to you beforehand and you must include it in the call at the group's expense."

You are quoting from page 145 of the "in Brief" version of RONR.  Your parliamentary authority is the 12th edition of RONR itself. 

Read what is said in the 3rd and 4th paragraphs on page 7 of the "In Brief" book you are looking at.

[Atul Kapur]

First, you are reading from the current, 3rd, edition of RONR In Brief. That is not the actual parliamentary authority, which is the current, 12th, edition of RONR. 

Second, your original question was about what needed to be included in the notice of the special meeting. As stated previously you do not need to include "Those Directors who called for it" in the notice of the meeting. The first sentence of the example you quoted from RONR In Brief is the Notice of Meeting and does not include the name of the person(s) calling for the meeting. The example is for a regular meeting but the same principle applies  to special meetings.

The second sentence of the example is the notice of motion. Has anyone given previous notice of a motion for the special meeting? If so, then, yes, that does need to be included with the call for the meeting.

But don't confuse the requirements for the notice of meeting with those of the previous notice of motion. RONR (12th ed.) 9:16

 

[Guest Dendra Best]

Has anyone given previous notice of a motion for the special meeting? If so, then, yes, that does need to be included with the call for the meeting

Yes they did and yes it was included in the original.