Special Meeting

[Guest The Wanderer]

Do special meetings  have to include the general membership, or can they only include voting members?

[Bruce Lages]

Under the rules in RONR all members are considered voting members and therefore have the right to be notified of, and attend, all meetings of the general membership. If your organization includes classes of membership with and without voting rights, it will have to determine whether, and to what extent, the right to attend meetings applies to each of those classes. For reference purposes, RONR makes no distinction between regular and special meetings of the general membership with regard to members' rights to participate.

Personally, I believe it would be much more beneficial to the organization to include all members in general membership meetings rather than excluding non-voting members. Even without a vote, I suspect that the non-voting members would like to be kept informed of, and contribute to (to the extent they are able), the future plans for the organization.

[Guest The Wanderer]

Thank you. 

It is a teacher's union, and there are elected voting members. At times, discussions need to be had, and votes need to be held in the absence of the general membership due to privacy concerns. 

[Atul Kapur]

When you say "elected voting members" do you mean the elected board (or small leadership group by whatever equivalent name) of the union? Do you mean the elected delegates to a convention?

I am asking because you seem to be using the term "elected voting members" to differentiate from all the members of the union, which sounds unusual for a union.

[Josh Martin]

On 7/28/2023 at 1:22 PM, Guest The Wanderer said:

Do special meetings  have to include the general membership, or can they only include voting members?

On 7/28/2023 at 1:58 PM, Guest The Wanderer said:

It is a teacher's union, and there are elected voting members. At times, discussions need to be had, and votes need to be held in the absence of the general membership due to privacy concerns. 

Well, presumably, the members of the general membership are also voting members, because these "elected voting members" are elected by somebody.

I think what you are trying to get at is that the union includes some smaller, governing body (such as a convention or Board of Directors) which manages the affairs of the union. When that group meets, only persons who are members of that group have a right to attend, unless the organization's rules or applicable law provide otherwise.

Edited July 28, 2023 at 10:22 PM by Josh Martin

[Gary Novosielski]

On 7/28/2023 at 2:22 PM, Guest The Wanderer said:

Do special meetings  have to include the general membership, or can they only include voting members?

There's something confusing about the way this is phrased.  Let's try to get some terminology straight.

Surely the general membership has a vote, or how could they vote for the elected voting members?  And presumably they vote for officers too.

It sounds to me like we're talking about two different bodies, the General Membership, and a body made up of the reps elected by the rank and file.  It might be called the Rep Council or some other name, but its members are the elected reps.  This would typically be a separate body, and would hold its own regular meetings on its own schedule., such as monthly.   The general membership might meet infrequently, perhaps only annually.  But if you're organized under the rules of RONR, these are two separate bodies, even though some people will be members of both, and the president might be president of both, etc.

It's also possible that at these "council" meetings, general membership members would be allowed to attend, but not vote.  That would still mean this is a meeting of the "council" not of the general membership.  They cant vote because they're not members (of the "council").  

Special meetings are meetings that do not occur on a regular basis. They are called for one or more specific reasons. The rules about who can call special meetings, and how, are in your bylaws. If you have different bodies as mentioned above, you might have special meetings of one, or the other, from time to time.  For example, you might call a special meeting of the Membership if it's time to ratify a contract.

According to the rules in RONR, members have the right to vote at meetings of a body of which they are a member, and can't vote at meetings of bodies of which they are not a member, even if they are allowed, by rule or custom, to attend them.

Does any of this make sense in your situation?  And do you have a copy of your bylaws that you can refer to?

I used to be in leadership at a local teacher's union, so some of this should sound familiar to you. 

Also, what is your role in this?  General member? Elected Rep?  Officer?  Prospective member?

Edited July 29, 2023 at 04:32 AM by Gary Novosielski