Parliamentary Procedure

Familiarity with basic rules of parliamentary procedure will allow you to more readily follow the action during business portions of the Annual Meeting. Under the rules of parliamentary procedure, business is brought before the Council in the form of a motion, called a proposal.

There are six steps in processing a motion, view the video below to see each step.

Step One: A voting member makes a motion.

Step Two: Another voting member seconds the motion.

Step Three: The chair states the motion by repeating it. This formally places the motion before the assembly.

Step Four: The chair asks for discussion on the motion. The person who made the original motion is given the first opportunity to speak. The chair then alternately calls on speakers who are AGAINST the motion and those who are FOR it.

Step Five: The chair puts the motion to a vote. Each voting member casts her or his vote. Votes are tallied quickly, so the results (proposal adopted or defeated) are known in a short time-frame.

Step Six: The chair announces the result of the vote.

Additional Meeting Procedure Information

Secondary Motions

Secondary motions you’ll commonly see used are Amend, Previous Question, and Point of Information. The secondary motion you’ll see most frequently is Amend.

Amendments change the wording of a proposal or an amendment either by inserting words, striking (or deleting) words, or doing both at once by striking and inserting.

If the amendment is adopted, debate resumes on the main motion as amended, or the amendment as amended. If the amendment is defeated, debate resumes on the main motion or amendment as originally worded.

Scope of Notice

Amendments must be within the scope of notice of the pending motion. The scope is the range between the situation that currently exists and the change proposed in the motion. Anything within that range is in order, and anything outside that range is out of order.

Germane

All amendments must be germane, or related to the motion being amended. An amendment cannot introduce a new subject.

Previous Question

If debate becomes repetitious and no new points are being made, a voting member may move the motion “previous question.” Adoption of this motion ends debate and amendment of the immediately pending question (or all pending questions, depending on how the motion is made) and the chair then puts the question to a vote.

A two-thirds vote of all votes cast is required to adopt the previous question and have the assembly proceed immediately to a vote.

Request for Information

While engaged in debate on a particular proposal, a voting member may want to ask a question about the proposal. If so, she or he goes to the microphone and awaits recognition from the chair. When called to speak, the correct form is: “I rise to request information” or “Request information.”

Please note that requests for information are stated in the form of a question. The purpose of requesting information is to get information, not to give information. The chair may respond to the question or call upon an appropriate resource person to answer.