Robert's Rules of Order are detailed and specific, but you will not need to memorize them for the purposes of this class. A "cheat sheet" of the basic rules can be found here, and you should look this over so you have a general idea of how parliamentary procedure works.
SETTING THE AGENDA
Each tournament begins with the formation of the agenda, the order in which the bills will be debated. The agenda is either set ahead of time by the tournament directors, or it is set through the collaboration of competitors right before the round begins.
The latter is most common; competitors collaborate to form an agenda for the legislation in the docket they receive before the tournament. Several potential agendas are formed and then voted on by the members of the chamber. An agenda needs a majority vote for adoption. Consequently, several rounds of voting may be needed.
ELECTING THE PRESIDING OFFICER
After an agenda is selected, the chamber elects a presiding officer (P.O.). The first step in the process is for a participant to rise and say “I move to open the floor for presiding officer nominations.”
Once the floor is open for nominations, any member of the chamber may rise to nominate a fellow participant; no one may nominate himself. Each nomination requires a second by another member of the chamber and then the acceptance of the nomination by the nominee.
Once all nominations have been made, a competitor moves to close the floor for presiding officer nominations. As nominations are made, seconded, and accepted, the parliamentarian creates a list of the nominees. Before the voting takes place, nominees are given a brief opportunity (no more than 20 or 30 seconds) to introduce themselves and explain why they should be elected.
Nominees are typically recognized to speak in reverse order of nomination. Then, the voting begins.