Every State requires the public's business to be done in public, and every State's version of that requirement is evaded in the same predictable ways. This article explains what counts as a meeting, why the answer turns on deliberation rather than on voting, and how the serial or walking quorum — a sequence of one-on-one conversations that assembles a decision without ever assembling a body — became the central problem of the field. It covers what notice and agendas must contain and why an agenda item reading "other business" is usually unlawful. It explains executive session: the narrow list of permitted subjects, the procedural steps that must precede a closure, and why the most common violation is not closing improperly but discussing something else once closed. It covers public comment as a First Amendment forum question, the right to record, and what remedies actually exist — including whether a violation voids the decision, which is the question everyone asks and the one with the least satisfying answer.