Special Called Meeting Notice

[Guest Kelly Drake]

Hello I am seeking help with a Special Meeting Notice. Our church by-laws state "Notification of such meetings, including the purpose or agenda, must be made a minimum of 14 days prior to the meeting. Notification may be made from the pulpit, posted on the church bulletin board, published in the worship bulletin, newsletter, or via electronic distribution." "Notice of any amendment to this Constitution shall be proposed in writing, and distributed at least two weeks prior to any congregational meeting."

In years past any notice of a special meeting included the purpose right below the date and time. This past month however the notice on the website and in our church bulletin stated Special Congregational Meeting, with the date. No business was identified. 14 days prior to the meeting the church bulletin had the following: Special Called Congregational Meeting, Date, Immediately following the service, Please plan on attending this meeting. You will find the meeting agenda with the items to be covered and all of the necessary paperwork needed for the meeting in the parlor. The only notice on our website was Special Congregation Meeting with the date.

I raised this as a concern and that a proper notice was not given as stated in our by-laws. I was told that was my interpretation. Since by-laws were part of the lengthy agenda I did not feel adequate notice was given. Is this the proper way to give notice of the Special Meeting? Thanks in advance for your interpretation and feedback.

[George Mervosh]

We can't tell you if it was proper according to YOUR rules, but if you feel it wasn't, raise a point of order at the meeting and cite your reasons succinctly. The chair will rule and his ruling is subject to appeal.

Bottom line is, if the chair rules your point is "not well taken", you'll need a lot of members there who agree with you, or it's.....meeting on.

[Guest Kelly Drake]

I appreciate the reply, we use Robert's Rules as our guidance on meetings. Is the way this was handled appropriate to those rules?

We can't tell you if it was proper according to YOUR rules, but if you feel it wasn't, raise a point of order at the meeting and cite your reasons succinctly. The chair will rule and his ruling is subject to appeal.

Bottom line is, if the chair rules your point is "not well taken", you'll need a lot of members there who agree with you, or it's.....meeting on.

[George Mervosh]

I appreciate the reply, we use Robert's Rules as our guidance on meetings. Is the way this was handled appropriate to those rules?

What's appropriate under the rules is for a society itself to have a specific method to call special meetings. You have that. What's not appropriate is for us to comment on the church's specific method or to determine if they followed it. If you feel they didn't, my earlier posting should be of help in challenging the matter during the meeting itself.