Visitors' Meeting Moved to May

BRITTANY DeVRIES

The UMW Board of Visitors postponed last Friday’s meeting because proper public notice of the originally scheduled meeting’s arrangements was not given.
The meeting is postponed until May 8.
Procedures for announcing regular Board meetings as described in the Freedom of Information Act include at least a 10-day advance notice by mail or telegram that includes dates, times, and places, according to Board Bylaws, Section IV.
President Judy Hample said that the procedural guidelines for publicly announcing the meeting were not adhered to due to a “clerical error.”
“The Freedom of Information Act requires posting notice of public meetings in four locations, but due to a clerical error only three locations were properly noticed,” Hample said.
According to Section IV of the Board Bylaws, the secretary or clerk of the board is responsible for proper notice of the Board meetings.
Brooke Kingsley, executive assistant to the vice president, said the postponed meeting was due to a website notice that was not properly updated.
“There was one place where the information on the site was not updated,” Kingsley said.
According to Kingsley, postponing the Board meeting until May was done by recommendation from the Attorney General’s office, although Hample said that Board Rector Sauder made the request.
“Rector Sauder made the decision to take up the items on the April Board agenda at the May meeting after canceling the April meeting,” Hample said.
Although April items will be postponed for approximately three weeks, Hample said that not discussing the list of items from April will not create any problems.
“Postponing does not affect the decisions,” she said. “There is no problem with the decisions being made in May rather than April.”
Kingsley and Hample both said that there was no objection to the decision.
“Obviously the entire board agreed to postpone it,” Kingsley said.