Background Information for the Beginners

Parliamentary Procedure is your key to effective facilitation in large groups. It opens the door to organized meetings and controlled discussion. The majority rules, but the minority is entitled to a full and fair hearing. By following the rules of parliamentary procedure, our group ensures its awareness of what business is at hand and the orderliness of its discussion.

The casual observer may believe that most student council work is done in business meetings. Those who work with student councils know that a large share of the work is done by committees and by the officers. Nonetheless, there is important work accomplished during business meetings.

Business meetings are held for several reasons: to have a limited amount of discussion on an issue or proposed course of action, to decide an official stand on it by using a formal voting procedure, and to communicate, motivate, and educate the council.

The rules of business meetings are usually referred to as "parliamentary procedure," since their historical origins are in procedural rules developed in the British Parliament. A thorough understanding of the rules can be great aid to councils; but applying the haphazardly will result in disastrous meetings.

For most councils, business meetings are not the best place to develop creative ideas or to work out compromises. These jobs are usually handled in committees.

The Different Methods of Using Parliamentary Procedure

The easiest way to use Parliamentary Procedure in meetings is to use Parliamentary Logic. While Parliamentary Wording is always useful for general knowledge, some of the terms may become quite overwhelming and confusing to some members. This is perhaps the reason why Parliamentary Logic is used more often.

The Principles of Parliamentary Logic

A student council should:

• Consider only one idea at a time
• Encourage individuals to introduce ideas, but decide on those ideas only as a group
• Decide how to spend its own time in meetings
• Be ruled by the majority, but also protect the minority
• Realize that some individual rights cannot be violated by the group for any reason
• Refuse to take a stand if it might be harmful later
• Have the option to change its mind

These are common terms in Parliamentary Procedure. Using this exact diction is known as using Parliamentary Wording. This can be used as an exercise activity as well. Simply guess the meaning of the word, then click the link to create a pop-up that will define the word in its actual meaning.

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Common Parliamentary Terms

Definitions:

• Accepting a Report
• Address the Chair
• Adjourn
• Adopt
• Amend
• Announcing the Vote
• Appeal decision of chair
• Assembly
• Audit
• Aye and No
• Board
• Business
• By-laws
• Carried
• Chair
• Chairman
• Chairman Pro Tempore
• Commit
• Committee of the whole
• Division of the house
• Ex-Officio
• Fix time of next meeting
• General Consent
• Germane
• Honorary
• House
• Immediately Pending
• In Order
• Lay on table
• Limit Debate
• Main motion for general business
• Majority
• Make a special order of business
• Mass Meeting
• Meeting
• Minutes
• Motions
• Nomination
• Object to consideration
• Obtaining the floor
• Orders of the day
• Outrank
• Parliamentary inquiry
• Parliamentary Law
• Pending
• Plurality
• Point of Order
• Postpone indefinitely
• Postpone to a certain time
• Precedence
• Present
• Previous question
• Pro Tem
• Proxy
• Put to a Question
• Question
• Question of order
• Question of privilege
• Quorum
• Receiving a Report
• Recess
• Recognize
• Reconsider
• Refer to committee
• Reporting Member
• Request for information
• Rescind
• Secondary Amendment
• Seriatim
• Sine Die
• Slate
• Speaker
• Special Committee
• Standing Committee
• Standing Rules
• Stating the Question
• Take from table or to resume consideration
• Tellers
• The Vote
• Tie
• Via Voice
• Withdraw a motion
• Yeas and Nays
• Yield

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