Order of Meeting

Typical Order of Meeting:

Call to order: The official start of the meeting.

Roll call: Knowing the number of people at the meeting is necessary for voting procedures during New Business. It’s important for the secretary to know who is present and to also know if anyone needs to leave early.

Approval of the minutes: The minutes from the previous meeting need to be approved at this time, either with or without changes.

Presentations: This time is for any information that needs to be relayed to the chapter, but is not connected to a person’s report, or is given by someone who does not hold a position. It shouldn’t be used to present information that could be given in a report at another time.

Officer Reports, Standing Committee Reports, Ad-Hoc Committee Reports: All of these reports should just be the relaying of information from the person(s) speaking to the chapter. Any questions from the chapter should be to clarify the information being received. This should not be interactive.

Open Forum: This is when people have a chance to get the opinion of the chapter on some issue. This should not be used for debate, or as a free for all of suggestions and comments. This is a great time to come with a few suggestions, and see which the chapter prefers.

Old Business: Any motions that were tabled (postponed) and set to be discussed are considered.

New Business: This is the time for formal motions. This is run very formally because of the importance of the topics. All motions must be made in a formal way, such as “I (first and last name)move to…” All motions should contain as much detail as possible. For example, in a motion to ask for money, the following should be included: how much, repayment details, and how is the money going to be used?

Member’s Privilege: Typically this time is used for announcements, reminders, and updates.

Adjournment: The official end of the meeting.

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