[amsat-bb] Brief summary of the "unauthorized expenses" claim

[Rich Gopstein]

Let me clarify:

I said "the board said the expenses were authorized."

I didn't say "the board directly authorized the expenses"

The implication is that the officers authorized the expenses and the board
was OK with that.  And since it's up to the board to decide what the
officers can or can't authorize, the fact that they said that the expenses
were authorized should be sufficient.

Rich


On Mon, Jul 13, 2020 at 5:46 PM Steve Kristoff via AMSAT-BB <
amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:

>
> But even in your own evaluation there are contradictions.
>
> Quote from your email: "If an expense went to the board for approval, it
> would show up in the
>   minutes of that board meeting."
>
> Further down your email: "- In this case, the members of the AMSAT board
> at the time said that the
>   expenses were authorized."
>
>
> Then, by your own evaluation of the by-laws, if the members of the board
> authorized the expenditures (second quote), shouldn't that authorization
> show up in the minutes of the board meeting? (first quote)
>
> Steve AI9IN
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rich Gopstein via AMSAT-BB (amsat-bb at amsat.org)
> Date: 07/13/20 15:25
> To: Amsat - BBs (AMSAT-BB at amsat.org)
> Subject: [amsat-bb] Brief summary of the "unauthorized expenses" claim
>
> First: I'm not a lawyer.  These are my observations only.
>
> This is what I learned over the past few days while researching the claim
> that the AMSAT money spent on legal services related to the new directors
> was "unauthorized".
>
>   - I read the AMSAT bylaws.  They are very readable, BTW - and not long.
>   - The bylaws say that expenses can be authorized either by the board
>   itself or by the officers of AMSAT if the board delegates that authority.
>   - If an expense went to the board for approval, it would show up in the
>   minutes of that board meeting.
>   - If an expense were authorized by an officer, then it wouldn't show up
>   in the minutes of a board meeting.
>   - The claim that the expenses were unauthorized was based on the
>   observation that there was no record in the board meeting minutes of the
>   authorization.  However, as mentioned above, not everything has to go to
>   the board for approval.  And that decision is up to the board itself.
>   - In this case, the members of the AMSAT board at the time said that the
>   expenses were authorized.
>   - Since the board has the authority to authorize expenditures (directly
>   or indirectly) and they say the expenses were authorized, that indicates
> to
>   me that the expenses were authorized.
>
> Note: Michelle and Patrick were not members of the board when this
> happened.  They were analyzing this after the fact.
>
> Rich
> KD2CQ
> AMSAT Life Member
> _______________________________________________
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