Changing quorum

[Guest annameyers]

One of the associations I belong to has had difficulty reaching quorum for many years due to a number of circumstances. It makes sense to change quorum to a smaller number. I have gone thru the bylaws and there is nothing that describes how bylaws should be amended. There seems to be no description on how to amend the bylaws. We have our annual meeting in a week. Can the members vote on changing quorum at the AGM without prior notice or is it standard practice to send out bylaw changes ahead of time clarifying what will be changed? How do you properly go about this?

Secondly, how do you properly dispense with reading the minutes?

[Josh Martin]

Can the members vote on changing quorum at the AGM without prior notice or is it standard practice to send out bylaw changes ahead of time clarifying what will be changed? How do you properly go about this?

If it is true that the Bylaws are silent regarding their amendment (and I would double-check that again), then the Bylaws may be amended by a 2/3 vote with previous notice or a vote of a majority of the entire membership without notice. Previous notice may be provided by including the notice in the call of the meeting or by announcing it at the previous meeting if the next meeting is within a quarterly interval. Of course, there must be a quorum at the meeting to vote on any amendments to the Bylaws.

Secondly, how do you properly dispense with reading the minutes?

To dispense with the reading of the minutes is a term of art in parliamentary law, which means to delay the reading of the minutes until a later time in the meeting. This may be accomplished by majority vote, and the minutes are taken up again later by majority vote. If you mean instead that you wish to approve the minutes without them being read, this is the standard practice if the minutes are distributed in advance, but a single member may demand that the minutes be read. If the minutes have not been distributed in advance, the rules may be suspended by unanimous consent to approve the minutes without reading them, although this seems rather silly.