Quorum Requirements

[Guest Ken Nunn]

Can a board or group hold a meeting prior to a scheduled annual membership meeting to establish a quarum and vote on items so that they can avoid a vote at an annual meeting of the membership?

[Gary Novosielski]

Can a board or group hold a meeting prior to a scheduled annual membership meeting to establish a quarum and vote on items so that they can avoid a vote at an annual meeting of the membership?

Special meetings are only valid if they are authorized in your bylaws, and only with sufficient prior notice, and only for business listed in the call of that meeting.

Nothing that, according to your bylaws, must be done at the Annual Meeting may be done somewhere else instead.

[Tim Wynn]

Can a board or group hold a meeting prior to a scheduled annual membership meeting to establish a quarum and vote on items so that they can avoid a vote at an annual meeting of the membership?

I'm perplexed by the Heading of your post. What does this have to do with a quorum?

Are you asking if it was a legal meeting? If so, more details are needed to provide an answer.

Are you asking if the board is allowed to make decisions on certain subjects? Are you asking if the board's decision ties the hands of the general membership at the annual meeting?

[Kim Goldsworthy]

Can a board or group hold a meeting prior to a scheduled annual membership meeting and vote on items so that they can avoid a vote at an annual meeting of the membership?

Q. Can a board or group hold a meeting prior to a scheduled annual membership meeting ...?

Yes.

It violates no rule within Robert's Rules of Order for a board (or group?) to meet prior to an Annual Meeting.

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... to establish a quorum ...?

No.

You cannot pretend you are at a legitimate JUST BECAUSE you happen to have enough people present to meet your quorum threshold.

Meetings, and especially special meetings, must be properly called.

Robert's Rules of Order does not recognize spontaneous meetings or coincidental meetings.

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... so that they can avoid a vote at an annual meeting of the membership?

No.

Whatever business the annual meeting is going to do, no board, no "group" (?), can pre-empt the business of an annual meeting, like (a.) election of officers; (b.) amending one's bylaws.

At an Annual Meeting, there is no board present technically, since a board is only legitimate at a properly called meeting of the board. At an Annual Meeeting, the body which is meeting is the general membership, not the board. So the board cannot do any voting at all, except as individual members, as part of the general membership. So it is a contradictory statement to assert that the board can "avoid a vote at an Annual Meeting", since the board cannot pre-empt the business of the general membership.