Contingency plan for November annual meeting approved by executive board

GRAPEVINE During their Aug. 18 meeting, SBTC’s Executive Board adopted a plan, recommended by the executive committee and approved by the convention’s Committee on Order of Business, to be implemented in the event of gathering restrictions that would make meeting in Austin this year impossible. 

The SBTC constitution requires an annual meeting in Article VI and guards the right of the messengers to designate the time and place of the meeting. The board can call a special meeting of the convention but cannot on its own authority designate the time and place of the annual meeting. In consultation with the convention’s legal counsel and parliamentarian, a plan was developed that follows constitutional guidelines should an emergency require a change. 

The motion passed by the board has two features: The first would authorize the board’s executive committee to cancel the 2020 annual meeting if they determine cancellation is “prudent or necessary.” The second feature authorizes the executive committee, on behalf of the board, to call a special meeting of the convention for the sole purpose of designating a new time and place for the 2020 annual meeting. If such a meeting is called, the board will offer a motion designating the place of the annual meeting as the same place as the special meeting and the time of the annual meeting, immediately following the adjournment of the special meeting. Upon approval of messengers to the special meeting, the new time and place would be in effect. 

SBTC Executive Director Jim Richards stressed the precautionary nature of the plan, “Everything is set for the annual meeting of messengers at Hyde Park Baptist Church in Austin, Nov. 9 and 10. However, we do have an alternate plan that should enable us to gather in the event of the most extreme circumstances.”   

The calling of a special meeting requires approval of two-thirds of the Executive Board and published notice of the meeting, and its purpose, in the “official publication of the Convention” at least 30 days prior to the meeting.