Step 1: Meaning of adjournment:
Adjournment of a meeting means stopping the meeting for the time being and putting off the remaining business to a later date, time or place.
The meeting is not ended for good. It continues later.
Step 2: Types:
Adjournment to a fixed date: the chairperson announces the day, time and place of the next sitting.
Adjournment sine die: the meeting is closed without fixing any date for the next sitting.
Step 3: Reasons and rules:
The chairperson may adjourn a meeting with the consent of the members, for example when there is no quorum, a disturbance, lack of time or the death of a leading member.
The unfinished business is taken up at the adjourned meeting.
Business that is already finished is not discussed again, and the minutes record the adjournment.
Final Answer:
Adjournment is a break in the meeting, with the left-over business taken up at a later meeting. It is different from the final close of a meeting.