Joint session 5594801 191931441 2008-02-16T21:43:08Z 9Nak 5944213 Repairing link to disambiguation page - [[Wikipedia:Disambiguation pages with links|You can help!]] A '''joint session''' or '''joint convention''' is, most broadly, when two normally-separate [[decision]]-making groups meet together, often in a [[special session]] or other extraordinary meeting, for a specific purpose. Most often it refers to when both houses of a [[bicameral]] [[legislature]] sit together. A joint session typically occurs to receive foreign or domestic [[diplomat]]s or [[leader]]s, or to allow both houses to consider [[bill (law)|bill]]s together. ==United States== {{main|Joint session of the United States Congress}} The [[State of the Union Address]] of the [[president of the United States]] is traditionally made before a "joint session" of the [[United States Congress]]. Many states refer to an analogous event as a "joint convention". Obviously such assemblies are typically held in the chamber of the [[lower house]] as the larger body. [[State constitution]]s of [[U.S. state]]s may require joint conventions for other purposes; for example [[Tennessee]]'s requires such to elect the [[Tennessee secretary of state|secretary of state]], the state treasurer, and the [[comptroller]] of the [[treasury]]. ==Others== In another analogous but not identical event, the [[monarch]]'s speech upon the opening of the [[British Parliament]] is made before a joint sitting of the Commons and the Lords, but this event occurs in the Lords' chamber, both because it was formerly the larger body but also due to the [[constitutional convention (political custom)|constitutional convention]] that the monarch never enters the Commons chamber. Various [[government agencies]] and [[non-governmental organization]]s may also meet jointly to handle problems which each of the involved parties has a [[Stakeholder (corporate)|stake]] in. [[category: government]] {{government-stub}}