Parliamentary Procedure

City Councils, School Boards, County Boards, State Legislature, Congress and all committees within these governing bodies use the rules of Parliamentary Procedure to conduct business. Parliamentary Procedure used by these bodies is derived from a lengthy book, Robert's Rules of Order. This procedure for conducting business was established early in the development of this country. The function of these rules is to provide a uniform set of expectations when conducting public meetings. The rules prevent the committee chairman, as well as the majority point of view, from have unlimited control over the business being discussed and insure civil discourse in the conduct of democratic decision making. Consult Article V of the House Rules later in the section. Below is a sample of how parliamentary procedure may be used in class committee.

· The teacher, or any other student who runs the committee or session, should be addressed a Mr. Chairman (Ms, Mrs., Madame).

· Student are addressed as Mr. or Ms. (Last Name)

· Committee Members are granted the floor by the chairman. This may occur when a committee member says “Mr. Chairman, I request the floor” or by standing up or by raising your hand when there are many who wish to request the floor.

· Chairman then says “The chair recognizes Mr. Johns for 3 minutes”.

· Mr. Johns now has the floor for 3 minutes to speak. Mr. Johns may request a specified additional minutes and the chair may accept or deny the request.

· When Mr. Johns finishes speaking he may “yield the remainder of his time” back to the chair, to a fellow committee member or may yield a portion of his time to a committee member for a question or statement.

· If a committee member has a question of the member with the Floor he or she may ask “Point of Information”. These must be directed to the Chairman (or Speaker in full session). The Chairman then will repeat the question to the person who has the floor, who may or may not answer. Point of information may not interrupt the person who has the floor; rather it may only be posed after the person has finished speaking. More is described on the next page.

· In parliamentary procedure a Motion is a formal proposal for the assembly to take action such as Adjourn, Recess, Call the Question (end discussion and go to a vote), etc. To make a Motion a member of the committee must rise to their feet and say “I Move to recess to the computer lab to work on position papers.” Any motion must be Seconded by a fellow committee member. Most Motions are subject to debate before a vote. Most motions require a Majority Vote. Only the person who has the floor may make a Motion. The individual then has the remainder of their time to receive a Second.

· Most votes are Majority Votes, such as motions and passing of resolutions or bills. A majority is one more then ‘yes’ vote than half of the members listed on the committee or session roster. For example: if there are 21 one member on the roster then at least 11 yes votes is necessary to pass a motion or measure (bill or resolution).

· If the person who is in control of the floor refers to another person by name, that person immediately has the right (if they so desire) to control the floor for three minutes.

· A motion to Suspend the Rules may be requested by the chairman when the lesson plan calls for activities that do not require the use of parliamentary procedures.