Package includes:

On Demand Module  l  Booklet  l  PowerPoint Presentation

Package Fee (incl GST)

• $91 - NZLS members and Associate members
• $121 - Non-members

Note: Access to the online files is via your "My CPD" page. If you would like to purchase multiple packages, please contact us here.

On Demand Module

Meetings called, run and minuted as required by law are fundamental in business, government, and the community, but their general legal requirements are too frequently ignored. This module will discuss those general requirements (but will not cover specific statutes); assisting all practitioners advising companies, societies, trusts, charities and other entities, as well as the many lawyers serving on community committees or boards. 

Topics covered will include:

• Why have meeting rules?
• What needs to be done before a meeting?
• Good meeting agendas
• Who can attend and participate in a meeting?
• Proxies and quorums at meetings
• How a meeting chairperson can maintain order
• The formalities for making decisions at meetings
• Framing and processing motions and amendments
• Differences between substantive and procedural issues and motions, and procedural priorities
• How to avoid wasting time in meetings
• Meeting minutes – content and formalities
• Characteristics of a good chairperson.

Learning objectives

After this module you will:

• Know more about good meeting procedure and how to avoid some legal pitfalls associated with meetings.
• Be able to be a more effective meeting participant and appreciate what you need to learn more about.

Please contact us if you use a dial up internet connection.

Electronic Booklet

Introduction

Like it or not, meetings are integral to everyday life. If you think about it, we have meetings all the time, even if we do not characterise what is happening as a ―meeting‖, such as, when a discussion takes place about what to do today, where to go on holiday, what car to buy, etc. Meetings can be called to discuss such issues, but what we most commonly describe as ―meetings‖ tend to be more formal, and this Webinar covers the legal essentials for formal meetings.

1.3 While a cynic might suggest that having a meeting is an alternative to actually doing some work, the reality is that formal meetings that are called, run and minuted as required by law are absolutely fundamental to the way businesses, government organisations, and community entities make decisions. What the cynic‘s suggestion highlights is that meetings can be, and often are, unproductive, frustrating, and boring. I do not accept that as a fact of life! If meetings are properly called, run and recorded they should be productive and effective.

1.4 While I am also strongly of the view that the success of meetings lies in all participants knowing the basic rules, a successful chairperson who is confident in knowing the rules should be able to preside over most meetings in a relatively relaxed way.

1.6 The emphasis of this Webinar is on the ―legal essentials‖ for valid meetings, but it also contains some guidance that, if followed, may improve the general standard of meetings.

• Can better contribute to the ―good health‖ of meetings, and
• Will be better able to advise companies, bodies corporate, societies, trusts, charities and government agencies about meeting procedures, and
• When serving on or chairing committees or boards, will be able to help improve the standard of their meetings.

This booklet is not a full exposition on meeting law – that may be found in published texts.
(Continuted further in booklet...)
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1 The Americans and South Africans follow a variation based on Robert‘s Rules of Order. The oldest text on meetings I have seen is A Manual of the Law with regard to Public Meetings and Political Societies, published in 1833. While the book is a quaint commentary on early 19th century meetings, it offers not the slightest practical guidance on how to run a meeting.
2 For example, the passage in Wilkie v Kiely (1914) 33 NZLR 816 at 818, cited in paragraph 2.6(b) below.

PowerPoint Presentation