This book is about meeting procedure in Australia, with rough applicability to countries with similar procedures – such as the UK, from where Australian meeting procedure originates, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth countries.
This book takes a descriptive, rather than prescriptive, approach to meeting procedure. We review a wide range of :ref:`authorities on meeting procedure <authorities>`, from both Australia and abroad, and from various different contexts. We combine this with the author's personal experience, presenting a comprehensive *description* of the range of meeting procedures in use, to give this book the widest possible applicability.
.. comment This book does seek, however, to introduce a small number of novel models for conceptualising certain principles of meeting procedure which, although not widely attested to by other authorities, the author believes have beneficial explanatory value.
.. comment Similarly, where the author believes that certain practices attested to by other authorities are significantly more (or less) preferable than others, that will be noted as a personal recommendation of the author.
However, where the author believes that certain practices attested to by other authorities are significantly more (or less) preferable than others, that will be noted as a personal recommendation of the author.
This book does not exhaustively cover the *law* relating to meetings, nor does it confine itself only to the law, as there exist many books on this topic – such as :ref:`Lang (2015) <horsley>` – and many practical aspects of running meetings fall outside the scope of legal regulation.
This book does not cover in detail requirements specific to company meetings under the *Corporations Act 2001* (Cth) (or other specific types of organisation). Most general principles of meeting procedure apply equally to companies, and there again exist many texts on company meeting specifics – such as :ref:`Lang (2015) <horsley>` and :ref:`Magner (2012) <joske>`.
This book does not cover matters relating to the administration of organisations outside of the practice of meetings. This book focuses on meetings of existing bodies, and so does not cover topics such as the establishment of organisations and bodies, inaugural meetings, the writing of rules or standing orders, or the conduct of mass meetings (although some of these topics are planned for future editions).
Who is this book for?
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This book is suitable for participants at meetings who'd like to learn more about meeting procedure to follow along or get involved.
It is suitable for Chairs of committees and organisations as a reference text on chairing meetings, or on meeting procedure generally.
It is also suitable, if desired, to be referred to in an organisation's rules as an authority on meeting procedure to resolve disputes that arise.
You may use this book, at your option, under either of the following licences:
* the `Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/>`_
* the `GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl-1.3.en.html>`_ or (at your option) any later version published by the Free Software Foundation, with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts
