Special Meeting

[Guest C Murphy]

When bylaws allow a group of members to call a special meeting, who sends the meeting notice to the membership and who presides over the meeting?  Is it the responsibility of the group of members to send the notice and determine who will preside?

[Gary Novosielski]

What do your bylaws say about members calling a meeting?

In a typical case the bylaws say that the president shall call a meeting at the request of n number of members.  In that case the members would send their request to the president.  In which case:

The president directs the secretary to send the notice of the special meeting to all members at the society’s expense in compliance with the bylaws no later than the required number of days in advance, making sure that it contains all the necessary information. [RONR (12th ed.) 9:14]

If the bylaws do not include any instruction, I think it would be appropriate for the members to send the request directly to the secretary.

The president would normally preside at special meetings.  Or if that's not possible, the vice president.  Or if that's not possible, a president pro-tem elected at the start of the special meeting.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 at 12:56 PM by Gary Novosielski
minor

[Rob Elsman]

The secretary sends the call of a special meeting to all of the members of the assembly at the expense of the society.  The president presides at the special meeting if he is present and not otherwise legitimately impeded; otherwise, the highest-ranking vice president who is present and not otherwise legitimately impeded presides.

Edited September 17, 2023 at 08:09 PM by Rob Elsman

[Atul Kapur]

In case that is not the desire of those calling for a special meeting:

The meeting may, by a 2/3 vote, suspend the rules and remove the president from the chair and appoint another individual as chair; this is temporary and only has effect for the current meeting. See 47:13 and 62:12-62:14.

If the president and vice president (and anyone else who is listed in your rules as being in the line of succession of chair) agree, a motion to appoint a temporary presiding officer only requires a majority vote.

Either of these have to occur at the meeting itself. While you can plan out your strategy to do this ahead of time, these motions can only be made at the meeting itself, not beforehand. 

Edited September 17, 2023 at 07:04 PM by Atul Kapur
Added opening and closing sentences.