Guidelines for General Membership Meetings

Question: 

We're trying to establish our general membership meeting schedule for the year--are there any rules or guidelines we should be following?

Answer: 

Meetings are governed by Article 5, Section 10 of the Uniform Bylaws, available online here, and by your local unit’s standing rules, so start there.  Some local units adopt a meeting schedule in the spring for the following year, whereas others don’t do so until the fall, but whenever the regular meeting schedule is established, notice should be sent to all members.  Even if the meeting schedule is already set, however, a special meeting of the general membership can be called by the President, a majority of the Board or by 5% of the membership.  Of course you’ll also want to take into account factors such as availability of a meeting location, a time that is convenient to members (including the teacher-members), and the nature of the business to be transacted at the meeting.