Active people attend meetings.
At meetings of youth groups like the Scouts and Future Farmers of America, service clubs like Kiwanis and Rotary, school boards and parent-teacher associations, even state and national legislative bodies, people more or less follow parliamentary rules.
Why? Parliamentary procedure balances the rights of the majority, the minority, and individual members, as well as enables an organization to do its business.
When an assembly ignores the rules, the rights of the members of the body - and of the people they represent - are trampled.
An assembled body may be a civic, recreational, professional, or legislative group.
"The great lesson for democracies to learn is for the majority to give to the minority a full, free opportunity to present their side of the case, and then for the minority, having failed to win a majority to their views, gracefully to submit and to recognize the action as that of the entire organization, and cheerfully to assist in carrying it out, until they can secure its repeal.
" So wrote Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order, in his Parliamentary Law (1923).
Sometimes called rules of order, parliamentary procedure recognizes that the majority vote used with open debate results in a decision that reflects the will of the assembly better than a decision-making system that seeks consensus, although parliamentary procedure does not preclude consensus; Henry Robert himself often achieved consensus through effective debate and parliamentary procedure.
"The customs and rules of meetings - the practices that go by the ungainly term 'parliamentary procedure' - are the bedrock of democracy, the mechanism by which a group of people can make fair and equitable decisions," according to the American Institute of Parliamentarians.
The term parliamentary derived through British parliaments and Middle English from the Old French word parlement, which in turn derived from parler, parlier - to speak, talk.
Parliamentary rules facilitate civil, polite, courteous language that addresses the question before the assembly.
Americans have used various parliamentary procedures over the years, often local versions, especially during colonial times.
The First Continental Congress in 1774 drafted minimal "rules of conduct to be observed in debating and determining questions"; for example, the delegates decided to cast votes by colony, one vote per colony regardless of population.
When Vice President Thomas Jefferson presided over the U.
S.
Senate, he saw a need for more detailed rules.
His Manual of Parliamentary Practice appeared in 1801.
A Massachusetts clerk of court, Luther S.
Cushing, saw the need of a manual for non-legislative bodies and produced his Manual of Parliamentary Practice: Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies in 1845, but he left it to each assembly to draft many rules specific to the body.
A military officer active in community affairs, Henry Martyn Robert saw a need for additional standardization of practices among deliberative assemblies that would require less time be devoted by each assembly to crafting rules specific to the body.
He prepared the first edition of Robert's Rules of Order in 1876.
After his death, a complete revision appeared as Robert's Rules of Order Revised, the 4th edition.
The next full revision appeared under the title Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, the 7th edition, in 1970.
Meanwhile, Alice Sturgis recognized the need for a simplified and modernized procedure.
She wrote Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure in 1950, and a second edition thereafter.
After her death the American Institute of Parliamentarians revised the book into The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 3rd edition, 1988, and 4th edition, 2001.
Both Robert's Rules - Newly Revised, 10th edition, 2000 - and the Standard Code - 4th edition, 2001 - are in current use, the main differences being the simpler procedures and less formal and archaic language of the Standard Code.
There are other manuals, some written specifically for legislative bodies, like Jefferson's 1801 Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the U.
S.
Senate.
Luther S.
Cushing wrote Lex Parliamentaria Americana: Elements of the Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies, which first appeared in 1856, which had been used by several state legistures, and which continues in use, now in a 1999 edition.
The U.
S.
House of Representatives has used Hinds' Precedents (1901), named after author Asher C.
Hinds; Cannon's Precedents (1935), named after Clarence Cannon; and Deschler's Procedure (1979), named after Lewis Deschler.
The U.
S.
House now uses House Rules and Manual, and the U.
S.
Senate uses standing rules collectively called Senate Procedure - both available online (at http://www.
rules.
house.
gov and http://rules.
senate.
gov).
Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure is used in about 35 states by both the state House and Senate, used in addition to chamber rules, as parliamentary procedure still recognizes specific rules of the authorizing body.
Paul Mason designed his manual specifically for state legislatures; the first edition appeared in 1935, and the National Conference of State Legislatures published the current edition in 2000.
Parliamentary procedure, regardless of which manual spells out the rules, is based on precedents, a system of principles, and reason: upon "reasonable and equitable customs.
" Mason, original author of Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, defined "ten fundamental principles that govern procedure": 1.
The group must be so constituted and endowed that it has the power and authority that it purports to exercise.
2.
There must be a meeting of the group at which the decision is made.
3.
There must be proper notice of the meeting so that all members of the group have an opportunity to attend and participate.
4.
There must be a quorum present at the meeting.
5.
There must be a clear question before the group for decision.
6.
When the decision is being made, there must be an opportunity to debate the question.
7.
The question must be decided by taking a vote.
8.
There must be a vote in the affirmative of at least a majority to make a decision or carry a proposition.
9.
There must be no fraud, trickery or deception causing injury.
10.
Decisions must not be in violation of laws, rules, or decisions of higher authority.
Parliamentary procedure can safeguard rights, facilitate democratic discussion, and get the business of the assembly done.
As U.
S.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, "The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards.
"
At meetings of youth groups like the Scouts and Future Farmers of America, service clubs like Kiwanis and Rotary, school boards and parent-teacher associations, even state and national legislative bodies, people more or less follow parliamentary rules.
Why? Parliamentary procedure balances the rights of the majority, the minority, and individual members, as well as enables an organization to do its business.
When an assembly ignores the rules, the rights of the members of the body - and of the people they represent - are trampled.
An assembled body may be a civic, recreational, professional, or legislative group.
"The great lesson for democracies to learn is for the majority to give to the minority a full, free opportunity to present their side of the case, and then for the minority, having failed to win a majority to their views, gracefully to submit and to recognize the action as that of the entire organization, and cheerfully to assist in carrying it out, until they can secure its repeal.
" So wrote Henry Martyn Robert, author of Robert's Rules of Order, in his Parliamentary Law (1923).
Sometimes called rules of order, parliamentary procedure recognizes that the majority vote used with open debate results in a decision that reflects the will of the assembly better than a decision-making system that seeks consensus, although parliamentary procedure does not preclude consensus; Henry Robert himself often achieved consensus through effective debate and parliamentary procedure.
"The customs and rules of meetings - the practices that go by the ungainly term 'parliamentary procedure' - are the bedrock of democracy, the mechanism by which a group of people can make fair and equitable decisions," according to the American Institute of Parliamentarians.
The term parliamentary derived through British parliaments and Middle English from the Old French word parlement, which in turn derived from parler, parlier - to speak, talk.
Parliamentary rules facilitate civil, polite, courteous language that addresses the question before the assembly.
Americans have used various parliamentary procedures over the years, often local versions, especially during colonial times.
The First Continental Congress in 1774 drafted minimal "rules of conduct to be observed in debating and determining questions"; for example, the delegates decided to cast votes by colony, one vote per colony regardless of population.
When Vice President Thomas Jefferson presided over the U.
S.
Senate, he saw a need for more detailed rules.
His Manual of Parliamentary Practice appeared in 1801.
A Massachusetts clerk of court, Luther S.
Cushing, saw the need of a manual for non-legislative bodies and produced his Manual of Parliamentary Practice: Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies in 1845, but he left it to each assembly to draft many rules specific to the body.
A military officer active in community affairs, Henry Martyn Robert saw a need for additional standardization of practices among deliberative assemblies that would require less time be devoted by each assembly to crafting rules specific to the body.
He prepared the first edition of Robert's Rules of Order in 1876.
After his death, a complete revision appeared as Robert's Rules of Order Revised, the 4th edition.
The next full revision appeared under the title Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, the 7th edition, in 1970.
Meanwhile, Alice Sturgis recognized the need for a simplified and modernized procedure.
She wrote Sturgis Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure in 1950, and a second edition thereafter.
After her death the American Institute of Parliamentarians revised the book into The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 3rd edition, 1988, and 4th edition, 2001.
Both Robert's Rules - Newly Revised, 10th edition, 2000 - and the Standard Code - 4th edition, 2001 - are in current use, the main differences being the simpler procedures and less formal and archaic language of the Standard Code.
There are other manuals, some written specifically for legislative bodies, like Jefferson's 1801 Manual of Parliamentary Practice for the U.
S.
Senate.
Luther S.
Cushing wrote Lex Parliamentaria Americana: Elements of the Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies, which first appeared in 1856, which had been used by several state legistures, and which continues in use, now in a 1999 edition.
The U.
S.
House of Representatives has used Hinds' Precedents (1901), named after author Asher C.
Hinds; Cannon's Precedents (1935), named after Clarence Cannon; and Deschler's Procedure (1979), named after Lewis Deschler.
The U.
S.
House now uses House Rules and Manual, and the U.
S.
Senate uses standing rules collectively called Senate Procedure - both available online (at http://www.
rules.
house.
gov and http://rules.
senate.
gov).
Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure is used in about 35 states by both the state House and Senate, used in addition to chamber rules, as parliamentary procedure still recognizes specific rules of the authorizing body.
Paul Mason designed his manual specifically for state legislatures; the first edition appeared in 1935, and the National Conference of State Legislatures published the current edition in 2000.
Parliamentary procedure, regardless of which manual spells out the rules, is based on precedents, a system of principles, and reason: upon "reasonable and equitable customs.
" Mason, original author of Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure, defined "ten fundamental principles that govern procedure": 1.
The group must be so constituted and endowed that it has the power and authority that it purports to exercise.
2.
There must be a meeting of the group at which the decision is made.
3.
There must be proper notice of the meeting so that all members of the group have an opportunity to attend and participate.
4.
There must be a quorum present at the meeting.
5.
There must be a clear question before the group for decision.
6.
When the decision is being made, there must be an opportunity to debate the question.
7.
The question must be decided by taking a vote.
8.
There must be a vote in the affirmative of at least a majority to make a decision or carry a proposition.
9.
There must be no fraud, trickery or deception causing injury.
10.
Decisions must not be in violation of laws, rules, or decisions of higher authority.
Parliamentary procedure can safeguard rights, facilitate democratic discussion, and get the business of the assembly done.
As U.
S.
Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote, "The history of liberty has largely been the history of observance of procedural safeguards.
"
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