Today's plenary session was one of the most consequential in the last 20 months because the president of the convention and other officers were up for election. Nevertheless, no agenda was provided with the meeting notice, and perhaps as a consequence, I didn't see any members of the public other than myself in attendance. The election was triggered when VICC's former president stepped down on Sept. 1, 2026.

The election took more than two hours, with much of the time taken debating whether a new president needed a majority of all VICC delegates or only a majority of those present and voting. After referring to Robert's Rules of Order and debating whether the election rules for electing the president could be waived, it was decided that the required majority was a majority of all VICC delegates.

The final tally was 7 to 7, with one delegate missing. The election will be taken up at the next plenary meeting in November.

The two tied candidates are Secretary Imanin Daniel and acting president Stedman Hodge.

Here are my comments in the chat:

J.H. Snider 11:20 AM
VICC Secretary Daniel and VICC Advisor Albert are attending a conference on federal and state constitutional conventions in Cambridge, MA. While Secretary Daniel can attend remotely, I suggest that today's plenary session should have been scheduled for another day, especially given the crucial election decisions being made at today's meeting. Most importantly, the key leadership elections taking place today were not included in the public notice for this meeting. These decisions should be postponed until a properly noticed meeting that includes these elections on the agenda.

Imani Daniel 11:25 AM
There are 15 elected members, a majority of which is 8. Absences, abstentions, no votes do not change the number of elected members, nor the majority.

J.H. Snider 11:27 AM

An absolute majority, not a relative majority, is required to appoint the president of a public body with fixed membership.  If you need to conduct 100 ballots to choose the president, then that's what will be necessary. Think of the history of nominating conventions for delegates to nominate a U.S. president.  It often took dozens of ballots and many days to secure enough delegate votes to elect a president. You cannot suspend the absolute majority requirement.

Imani Daniel 11:29 AM
2/3 to amend rules

J.H. Snider 11:33 AM
I agree that you could amend the rules by following the existing amendment rules. But I think it would be an awful procedure to both amend the rules and vote for officers under the amended rules at the same meeting without proper public notice in between.