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Special Meeting


grammaconnie

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RONR page 90

With the exception of motions that relate to procedure without direct reference to a particular substantive item of business, only business mentioned in the call of a special meeting can be transacted at such a meeting. If, at a special meeting, it becomes urgent in an emergency to take action for which no notice was given, that action, to become legal must be ratified by the organization at a regular meeting….

Question:

"must be ratified by the organization at a regular meeting" Does this mean the executive board meeting or a meeting of the unit owners?

If the answer is the unit owners, does that mean that the "action" cannot go forward and is not valid until the unit owners ratifiy it?

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RONR page 90

With the exception of motions that relate to procedure without direct reference to a particular substantive item of business, only business mentioned in the call of a special meeting can be transacted at such a meeting. If, at a special meeting, it becomes urgent in an emergency to take action for which no notice was given, that action, to become legal must be ratified by the organization at a regular meeting….

Question:

"must be ratified by the organization at a regular meeting" Does this mean the executive board meeting or a meeting of the unit owners?

If the answer is the unit owners, does that mean that the "action" cannot go forward and is not valid until the unit owners ratifiy it?

Take a look at RONR (10th ed.), p. 119, ll. 26-35.

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RONR page 90

Question:

"must be ratified by the organization at a regular meeting" Does this mean the executive board meeting or a meeting of the unit owners?

If the answer is the unit owners, does that mean that the "action" cannot go forward and is not valid until the unit owners ratifiy it?

What it means is that if the board moves to do something at a special meeting that is not allowed by the rule, but they consider it an emergency and decide to act anyway, they do so at their own risk. Their actions would be ratified after the fact by whatever group WOULD have been authorized to make that same motion at a regular meeting. It might be the board itself, if they would ordinarily be authorized to do what they did, but for the special meeting rule.

If it's a matter that the board has no power to do even at their regular meetings, but the general membership does, then the board should submit the question to the membership for ratification.

The action presumably will have gone forward by the time the ratification vote takes place. If it could wait, then the "emergency" is presumably no emergency.

But the ratifying body is under no obligation to actually agree to ratify the action. Of course they may fully favor the action and thank the board profusely for acting in a bold and courageous manner to safeguard the interests of the society.

Or, they could vote no, effectively saying, "you overstepped your authority and you did the Wrong Thing".

What happens then? Well, the people who did whatever they did without authorization are responsible as individuals for what they did, since the organization did not approve their actions, just as if they did anything else without proper authorization.

If they expended money, for example, they might be out of pocket personally for the amount they improperly spent. And soon, lawyers might be involved. :o

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