Page:Robert's Parliamentary Practice.djvu/185

Rh can be held over for the business meetings, yet occasionally there is pressing business that requires immediate attention and that must be acted upon at the regular meetings which are designed for other purposes. Unless it is prohibited by the by-laws, urgent business and minor matters may be attended to at any regular meeting. But such meetings are not meetings of deliberative assemblies in the fullest sense, where members have the rights and privileges which they have at the business meetings. It would be manifestly improper in a meeting with a musical program to allow members the right to introduce questions and to engage in debate the same as in a business meeting. Those who attend the meeting to hear the music, or the addresses, or whatever the program calls for, have the right not to be interfered with, except in an extreme emergency, of which the president is usually the best judge.

When important business must be attended to, the president should be informed of it, if possible, before the meeting opens. At such times as he thinks proper, usually at the close of the meeting, he announces that certain business should be attended to, and either explains it himself or calls on some one else to do so. He may then put the question to vote without any motion. After announcing the vote he proceeds to any other business that requires attention. When all necessary business has been disposed of he continues with the program, if it has not been completed, or