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Organizing Associations

When it is advisable to form a society, club, or other association, for any specific purpose, those who agree in regard to its formation may meet upon private notice or public call. The mode of organizing the meeting is similar to that of any other.

As soon as the meeting has been organized, and the chairman announces that it is ready to proceed to business, some one of the originators, previously agreed upon, should rise, and advocate the formation of the club or society required for the purpose set forth in the call, and end by moving the appointment of a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws. This committee should be instructed to report at the next meeting. A convenient time of adjournment is fixed on, and if there be no further business, the meeting adjourns.

When the time for the second meeting arrives, the same officers continue, without any new motion. If either be absent, his place is supplied, on motion, by some other. The Committee on the Constitution and By-laws reports. If the constitution is not acceptable, those present suggest amendments. As soon as it has taken the required shape, it is adopted, and signed by those present. The by-laws are treated in the same way.

The society is now formed, but not fully organized. The officers provided for by the constitution have now to be elected. This may be done at that meeting, or the society may be adjourned over for that purpose. So soon as it has been done, the chairman of the meeting gives way to the newly-elected president, or, in his absence, to a vice-president; the secretary of the meeting vacates his seat, which is taken by the newly-elected secretary or secretaries, and thus the organization of the new body is complete.