Virtual and Hybrid Booster Club Meetings: Rules and Setup

When a Virtual Meeting Is Allowed

RONRRobert’s Rules of OrderRobert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the rulebook most booster club bylaws adopt for running meetings. It governs a club only if the bylaws adopt it, and state law and the bylaws come first.All terms answers the question directly: a board may meet by videoconference or teleconference, including over the internet, only if the bylaws specifically authorize it. When the bylaws do authorize it, the meeting must be run so that all participating members can hear each other at the same time, and the club should adopt rules covering equipment, how members get the floor, how written motionsMotionA formal proposal that the club take an action or a position. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a motion is the only way a board or membership meeting makes a decision.All terms are submitted, how quorumQuorumThe minimum number of voting members who must be present for a meeting to conduct business. The bylaws set the number, and without a quorum the meeting cannot make a binding decision.All terms is determined, and how votes are taken and verified.

Three consequences follow for a booster club:

1. A video or phone meeting can count. Email and text cannot. An email thread or a group chat is not a meeting under RONR, because members cannot hear and respond to each other at the same time. Decisions by email are covered on Voting in Booster Club Meetings.
2. A club whose bylaws are silent should amend them. Until it does, a decision made at an unauthorized virtual meeting is open to challenge. The 12th edition of RONR recognizes that actions taken on decisions made without a valid meeting are subject to ratification at a later valid meeting, which is how a club repairs past virtual decisions.
3. Committees can meet virtually more easily. Under the 12th edition, a committee not established by the bylaws may be authorized to meet electronically by an instruction from the body that created it.

The 12th edition of RONR includes an appendix of sample rules for electronic meetings, which a club can adapt as standing rules.

What State Law Adds

For an incorporated club, state nonprofit corporation law may permit remote participation even when the bylaws are silent, or may impose conditions. California is an example. Unless the articles or bylaws provide otherwise, directors of a California nonprofit public benefit corporation may participate in a board meeting by conference telephone or video, and they count as present in person if all directors can hear one another. Participation by other electronic transmission counts only if each director can communicate with all the others at the same time and can take part in all matters, including proposing and objecting to actions.

Rules for remote general membership meetings are often stricter than rules for board meetings, and they vary by state. An incorporated club planning a virtual membership meeting or election should check its state page before sending the notice. Where state law and the bylaws differ, the stricter requirement is the safe one to follow.

Sample Bylaws Language

A club amending its bylaws to allow virtual and hybrid meetings can adapt this sample, after checking it against state law:

Electronic Meetings. Meetings of the board, the membership, and committees
may be held by telephone or video conference, or with some members present
in person and others participating remotely, provided that all participating
members can hear one another at the same time. Members participating in this
manner are present in person for purposes of quorum and voting. Notice of
an electronic meeting shall include instructions for joining. The board may
adopt rules for the conduct of electronic meetings, including methods of
voting, provided that any vote the bylaws require to be by ballot is
conducted by a method that keeps each member's vote secret.

The amendment process is on How to Amend Booster Club Bylaws.

Rules to Adopt for Electronic Meetings

The bylaws authorize virtual meetings. Standing rulesStanding rulesA club’s administrative rules, adopted by an ordinary vote and changed the same way: dues amounts, reimbursement deadlines, meeting times, and other details that shift from year to year.All terms make them work. A booster club’s rules should cover:

Running a Virtual Meeting

Before

1. Confirm the bylaws (and state law, for an incorporated club) allow the meeting format.
2. Send the notice with the link, the dial-in number, the agenda, and all reports.
3. Assign a host (not the president) to admit participants, manage muting, and run polls.
4. Set up polls in advance for any expected votes, limited to voting members.

During

1. The host opens the meeting 10 minutes early and admits participants by name.
2. The secretary takes roll and confirms a quorumQuorumThe minimum number of voting members who must be present for a meeting to conduct business. The bylaws set the number, and without a quorum the meeting cannot make a binding decision.All terms. The president calls the meeting to order.
3. The president reads the meeting’s ground rules aloud: raise hand to speak, motionsMotionA formal proposal that the club take an action or a position. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a motion is the only way a board or membership meeting makes a decision.All terms in the chat, how votes will be taken.
4. For each motion, the secretary reads or displays the exact wording before discussion and again before the vote.
5. The president announces each result with the count: “There are 7 in favor and 2 opposed. The motion is adopted.”

After

1. The secretary notes in the minutes that the meeting was held by video conference and lists who attended.
2. The host saves poll results and chat motion text for the secretary.

Hybrid Meetings

Hybrid meetings are the hardest format to run fairly. The in-room group tends to talk among itself and forget the remote members, which defeats the requirement that everyone can hear everyone.

• Use a room microphone and speaker that remote members can hear clearly. Test it before the meeting.
• Assign a remote-attendee monitor in the room who watches for raised hands and chat messages and tells the president.
• Alternate recognition between the room and remote participants.
• Take votes in a way that counts both groups together, such as a roll call or a show of hands in the room combined with a show of hands on screen, announced as one total.
• Do not take voice votes. Remote members cannot be heard clearly over the room.