Making Motions in Tomorrow's Leaders

I had an awesome opportunity to sit down with Conneaut Area Senior High School and talk to their FFA officer team about Parliamentary Procedure. The officers did not have a lot of experience with Parli Pro but neither do I! I was able to teach them the basics and at the same time, I was able to better understand it myself. They asked so many great questions and wanted to learn more. There were even two times that I was unsure of the answer so we dove into Robert's Rule of Order to find it!

The first activity was going through the process of how to make a motion. I created a set of cards on each step of making a motion, from obtaining the floor to the chair announcing the results of the vote.  Their first task was to take those steps and put them into order. I divided the officer team up into two groups to complete this activity. Each group was able to put the cards into order after a few attempts! Once we completed this activity, we went through each step and looked at how each step and process is pronounced.

After the students had a general idea of what was going on, we watched a quick 4-minute video showing the processes and steps in real-time. Once done, the officers did it for themselves! They had to run their own mock meeting! The motion that was brought to the assembly stated: CASH should purchase a cow for the FFA program. After debating for a bit, a vote was taken and it passed! Until Ms. Metrick stepped in and overruled!

I thought this demonstration was a lot of fun and I think the students had a lot of fun too. We were able to dive deeper into Robert's Rule of Order and talk about how important Parli Pro is for every meeting. I am so excited to see these students use their Parli Pro knowledge in the spring when I am student teaching.