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All - just wanted to thank you all for your opinions! Also, I wanted to let you know what happened. I contacted the experts on the constitution from our national organization to get some clarity. Long story short, there is a distinction made in our national organization's constitution that prescribes a certain structure and rules of order for "regular business meetings." Our by-laws also define that the first monthly business meeting shall be a regular business meeting. Thanks again all and apologies for my novice level of question.

You are correct, Richard - historically, our organization has used the "business" meeting to perform our organization's business. The non-business meetings were originally intended, in my opinion, to be more social in nature. In the recent past (several years), organizational leadership has opted to "call to order" on the second monthly meeting. This year's administration does not want to "call to order" on the second meeting. They want to revert to the more social intent of the second meeting - open to the whole membership. The caveat is, that the administration want to be able to have off-the-cuff discussions, brainstorming sessions, etc, that are related to organization business. As I write this, are we ok if we just don't call the meeting to order? Are we still aligned with our by-laws? Does this make sense? Again, thank you all for the insight!

All - thanks in advance for your guidance. It has been 15+ years since I have held parlimentarian duties, and I am very rusty with regard to RROR. The by-laws of my organization dictate that our body must hold 2 meetings per calendar month: "...the First monthly business meeting shall be held on the first Tuesday of the month. The second monthly meeting shall be held on the third Tuesday of the month..." Traditionally, the organization has held a business meeting on the second monthly meeting. Our new leadership, however, wants to use the 2nd monthly meeting as a meeting time for the executive committee. Given that the by-laws did not specifically note that the second meeting of the month necessarily be a business meeting, can we pass a standing rule to specify that the second monthly meeting be a non-business meeting? Any insight would be very helpful. Thank you!