Insights from the Inbox: In-Person Only General Meetings
January 18, 2023
The FSA often receives general questions in our inbox whose answers may be helpful to the wider membership.
Q: Why is the January 25 GM in-person only, with no online offering even for observers?
A: There are two reasons for this. (1) A legal seminar, given to Societies, through a partnership with Vantage Point and Pacific Legal Education and Outreach, recommended, based on various cases and precedents discussed in the seminar, that bylaws should be updated (to include electronic meetings) and passed at an in-person meeting.
(2) On a practical level, FSA leadership chose in-person only because we need to reach quorum to pass the bylaw change. If there is a hybrid option, even though we have advertised the need to attend in person, we know that (based on hybrid meeting attendance last year) it will likely be difficult to reach our in-person quorum. Despite our efforts to get the word out, we are concerned many people will choose the online option, paradoxically causing a significant delay to the very thing we want to achieve: hybrid General Meetings for our members. We acknowledge that accessibility is a priority and welcome any questions from members before or after the meeting, along with our stated plan to make meeting notes available.