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