Event Procedures

•  The student advisor will participate during the opening ceremonies for the advisor’s part and then will take on the role of a member to participate in debate and may be assigned a motion and will be asked an oral question.

• Every participant will receive a card (see the sample below) with the main motion and the four required motions from the list of permissible motions. No other motions may be used. However, a point of order and parliamentary inquiry may be used if it is not listed on the motion card. Points will not be awarded if it is not on the motion card, and an appeal may not be made on the president’s ruling. Included in the four required motions, will be a minimum of one debatable subsidiary motion.

• Required motion must be demonstrated by the officer that the motion is assigned to for points to be scored. If the assigned motion is used by another officer it must be properly renewed again if allowed by the assigned officer to score points.

• Judges will score all member debates, only the top three debates per team member will impact final team score.

• If the privileged motion recess is adopted, members must stay at their officer stations and may not talk or signal each other.

• Four of the six participants on the floor will be assigned a required motion. The motion will be marked in bold print and underlined on their cards to indicate the motion assigned.

• The demonstration including the opening and closing ceremonies will not exceed 13 minutes. (Penalties will be assessed see starting at 13:01).

• A time clock or time card will be provided so that the team can see. The clock will count up from zero minutes starting with opening ceremonies (signaled to begin by two taps of the gavel by the president) and stop when closing ceremonies are completed. If a time clock is not used, the timekeeper will signal the team with large cards at the elapsed times of nine and 11 minutes.

• Judges will ask one oral question (which may contain one to two parts) per participant. Oral questions will be predetermined and related to the permissible motions, general purposes of parliamentary procedure or officer duties and responsibilities. The same set of questions will be used for each team in each flight of the event. Separate sets of questions will be developed for each round of the event.

Main Motion 

• There is no pre-determined list of main motions. Main motions are determined annually by the event superintendent and must be developed for any of the three divisions of the chapter program of activities, which includes grow leaders, build communities and strengthen agriculture.

• Official dress is highly recommended.

• The order of business will begin at the conclusion of opening ceremonies and will begin with the consideration of new business (other items normally on the order of business are not to be considered). After opening ceremonies are completed, a member on the floor will gain recognition and state the main motion which will not be assigned to any particular officer.

• The motion to adjourn is not allowed. Closing ceremonies must be performed.

• Rubric should be used to determine the ranking of teams for each round.

• Point of order and parliamentary inquiry may be used with no point deduction, if not listed on the motion card when used appropriately. Use of other motions not listed on the motion card have no point value and will result in a point reduction not to exceed 20 points per instance.

Tiebreakers

• Ties will be broken based on the greatest number of low ranks. The participant’s low ranks will be counted and the participant with the greatest number of low ranks will be declared the winner. If a tie still exists, then the event superintendent will use test score to break ties.