A I P
C O M M U N I C AT O R SPRING
2021
President’s Message: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Electronic Meetings By Al Gage CPP, PRP, PAP
After just completing the most successful West Coast Practicum to date on Electronic Meetings, I thought I would share with you some of the takeaways from the Practicum. We had 113 register for the event and there was great discussion of the pros and cons of Electronic Meetings. This entire article is predicated on the assumption that a particular organization has authorized the use of electronic meetings and is compliant with both state law and the organization’s governing documents.
TABLE OF CONTENTS President’s Letter
1
Amendments Notice Request
3
Notice of Candidacy
3
AIP Officers
3
Calendar of Events
3
Deadline Date - Communicator
3
AIPSC2 Authorship Update
4
Interested in the CP Exam?
5
CP and CPP Exam Deadlines
5
East Coast Practicum
6
West Coast Practicum 2021 Recap
7
Be Southern
8
New Members
9
Amazon Smile
10
At the Practicum, some expressed the sentiment that electronic meetings and education events are here to stay, and they are probably correct! There are several reasons for this sentiment. I will share with you that both our organization and the many organizations that I work for, have witnessed a dramatic increase in participation at their events because of the widespread acceptance of electronic meetings and their associated platforms. This probably does not come as a surprise, but the costs associated with both hosting the event and attendance at the event is generally less than an in-person event. There are no hotel, travel, transfer, or dining expenses associated with attendance. Additionally, the cost to participate is generally lower because the hosting organization does not incur as much cost or risk associate with the event. But cost is not everything! Here is where we must distinguish between meetings and educational events. Great progress has been made in the delivery of educational events in an online environment. Almost all colleges and schools have figured out a method of delivery of education in a virtual format. Whether that content is as effective or viable long term remains to be studied and a verdict rendered. As far as having a meeting, you still have to be able to have the meeting in an environment or platform that preserves the characteristics of a deliberative assembly. It is especially important that members have a methodology that allows them to protect their rights as members in a manner similar to or equivalent to an in-person meeting. This presents a special challenge for very large meetings with the limitation of some of the platforms to 1000 participants. It appears this can be overcome by the addition of other platforms to resolve problems of recognition and interrupting motions, but I believe the consensus was this was both expensive (which should not be a problem with a meeting that large) and not entirely free of bugs and snags. Continued on following page
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PARLIAMENTARIANS Page 1
Spring 2021
SPRING
2021
AIP Communicator