PART VIII MEETINGS, LAWS, AND BUSINESS CHAPTER I. Meetings and Sessions CHAPTER II. Charters, Constitutions, By-Laws, and Rules CHAPTER III. Order of Business CHAPTER I MEETINGS AND SESSIONS THE word "meeting" clearly expresses the idea of coming together, the primary idea of a parliamentary body. The members literally meet. "Session" is a more comprehensive term, and comes from the Latin sessio, from sedere, sessum, "to sit." A session of a Legislature is the period during which it sits. Thus "a session of Parliament comprises the time from its meeting to its prorogation, of which there is in general but one in each year." Hence a session may include many meetings. The session is supposed to cover all the time necessary for a deliberative body to finish its business or to complete its term, as is the case with a session of Congress, or of an ecclesiastical assembly, while a meeting covers only the time from a convening to an adjournment. In a body which meets at regular and stated intervals, as weekly, monthly, or yearly, and completes its business upon once assembling, that one meeting is the session, and, in this case, "meeting" and "session" would mean the same. If the body, however, in order to finish its business, adjourns from time to time in the same day or near future, as with religious conferences, the adjournment would end a meeting, but not the session, and the session would cover all the meetings up to the final adjournment. Meetings are of different kinds. For example, they are regular or stated, special, and adjourned meetings, and of adjourned meetings, there may be adjourned regular meetings and adjourned special meetings. Regular meetings are fixed by the superior law, or by the rules of the body. Frequently they are called stated meetings. An adjourned meeting has all the powers of the original meeting which was adjourned, and is a continuation of the same as though there had been no adjournment. Special meetings are called at other times to transact special business. The president, or a few members, as provided in the rules of the society, may call a special meeting. Special meetings are specially called by those empowered to issue a call in the interim of regular meetings, and due notice must be given each and every member of the time and place of the meeting, and in the notice the exact business of the special meeting should be distinctly announced. The business of the special meeting is limited to the specific matters mentioned in the call for the said meeting. The special meeting is not for general business, such as belongs to the regular meeting, but for something specifically stated, and, therefore, it is not proper to say in the call, "and for the transaction of any other business which may be presented." That is the work of a regular meeting, and to attempt it in a special meeting would be in the nature of a surprise, and would give an opportunity to take advantage of the absence of those who thought only the specified matters would be considered and that the regular business would come up at the regular meeting. Only what is distinctly stated in the call can be considered at a special meeting. If it is desired to take up work that belongs to the regular meeting that can be done in an adjourned regular meeting. The minutes should always state the nature of the meeting, whether stated or special, as well as the matters under consideration, and the entry for the special meeting should contain a copy of the call. It is particularly important that every member should have fair and full notice of special meetings, because they occur irregularly, and, unlike the regular meetings, cannot be indicated in the permanent rules of the body. If it |