Parliamentary Procedure

This is a FREE quarterly publication by Shane D. Dunbar (MEd), Professional Registered Parliamentarian, that is designed to be FORWARDED BY YOU to FFA Chapter Advisors.

==> ANNOUNCEMENTS
==> PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE SITES WORTH VISITING
==> QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
==> TIPS ON TRAINING A TEAM FROM NATIONAL WINNERS
==> SEND COMMENTS REGARDING THIS BULLETIN TO: dunbar@northwest.net 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

**To receive all previous unedited Parliamentary
Procedure E Bulletins (1 6), send your request to
Shane Dunbar: dunbar@northwest.net .

**L@@K==>>FREE TO FIRST 100 REQUESTS Six parliamentary procedure cards listing 24 motions with their basic rules. E mail your name, school, and address to  parli-pro@northwest.net

**Who uses parliamentary procedure?

+Organizations

• Government and civic organizations
• U.S. Congress
• State legislatures
• City and county councils
• School boards
• Neighborhood and homeowners' associations

+Corporations

• Boards of Directors
• Shareholder meetings

+Non profit organizations

• Charitable organizations
• Fraternal organizations
• Churches
• Clubs
• Unions
• Professional organizations

**L@@K==>>The Washington State FFA now lists all the E Bulletins on their web site, http://waffa.wsu.edu/parlipro/ebulletin/ . Your state web site could link to it or all the bulletins could be placed on your state site also.

**From the National FFA Parliamentary Procedure CDE
Superintendent (Dr. Jim Connors: connors.49@osu.edu)

What is a good discussion?

The characteristics of a good discussion include a) completeness of thought, b) logical reasoning, c) clear statement of speaker's position, d) conviction of delivery, and e) concise and effective statement of discussion. It will probably be only 10 15 seconds long. There is no need to use a concluding statement such as "...for these reasons I encourage members to vote for/against the motion."

How is debate scored by the judges?

A member may debate as often as he/she wishes. The judges will give each debate a score ranging from 0 20 points. After the demonstration the judge will total the four (4) highest debate scores for each member. This rule was developed to encourage four higher quality debates rather than numerous average debates.

See the National FFA Parliamentary Procedure CDE Rules 3 8 for additional information about debate.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE SITES WORTH VISITING

**www.robertsrules.com/corrections.html (Corrections in the 5th printing of the 10th edition of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised)

**www.robertsrules.com/mboard.html (Question and answer forum)

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:

Two questions are answered on each E Bulletin. Send them to dunbar@northwest.net . If questions that were submitted do not appear on an E Bulletin, they will be answered personally by E mail. All answers are based on the 10th edition (October, 2000) of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR).

Q: Will you please explain why lost motions should not appear in the minutes?

A: All main motions do appear in the minutes. All main motions (except, normally, any that were withdrawn), points of order and appeals, whether sustained or lost, and other secondary motions that were not lost or withdrawn (in cases where it is necessary to record them for completeness or clarity) are to be recorded. For instance a main motion was on the floor and someone moved to refer the main motion to a committee. If the motion to commit was lost, what good would it do to put the that fact in the minutes? However, if the motion had been adopted, the fact that the motion was referred to a committee would be of great inportance. RONR (10th ed.), pp. 451 453.

Q: When writing minutes, which is proper: "A motion was made, seconded, and carried..." or "A motion was made, seconded, and adopted...?"

A: The words "carried" and "adopted" have the same meaning in so far as action on motions is concerned. RONR (10th ed.), p. 47. It is not necessary to include the fact that a motion was "seconded." That can be assumed by the fact that the motion was considered and approved. "The motion was adopted after debate" is a proper form to use when writing minutes. RONR (10th ed.), p. 455, l. 8, 9 In addition, minutes should also show the wording in which each main motion was adopted. RONR (10th ed.), p. 452, l. 24, 25.

TIPS ON TRAINING A TEAM FROM NATIONAL WINNERS

**Have your team make word puzzles and keys. Distribute them to all team members for solving.

**Have your team secretary write minutes for a ficticious meeting and then ask him/her to read it to the team and teacher for comments and corrections.