Sprinkling Some Parli Pro Knowledge In Our Schools

Learning the "2 Aces in the Hole" Motions
and exploring Robert's Rules of Order

Just a few weeks ago, I had the incredible opportunity to shadow at Sherman Central School and sprinkle a little bit of Parli Pro knowledge to Mrs. Maleski's 8th grade class. The first day we talked about what Parli Pro is and why it's important. Once we covered all grounds, we then started to learn the fun stuff, MOTIONS!! 

The fundamental Principals
 are the foundation for building
your Parli Pro knowledge

The 2 key motions to keep in your back pocket are called the "2 aces in the hole."We started off pretty strong with the motion called: Question of Privilege. We had a great time talking about the power of this motion. Now that we knew the coolest motion, I taught the students the second ace: Parliamentary Inquiry On the second day of teaching, we did a quick review of
2 motions and then discussed the 4 Fundamental
 Principles
of Parli Pro . . .

1. ONE item of business at a time
2. Extend courtesy to everyone
3. Majority Rules
4. Protect the rights of the minority

Look at Mrs. Maleski's
collection of old Robert's
Rules of Order!

These students mastered the meanings of these principles and motions, so we put their new knowledge to the test by having a real meeting. The motion was made to "make a trip down to Penn State to have some ice cream and tour the university." After serious debate, the motion finally came to a vote, and the motion passed!! These students did a great job using their Parli Pro knowledge and I hope to see them in Happy Valley to have ice cream with them and give them a grand tour of Penn State!

Another Day of Parli Pro

Only November 16^th, 2019 Nell Barbour, Jenna Harnish and I had the opportunity to be a large part of the Lancaster County Leadership Conference held for first year members and officer teams. Nell, Jenna, and I created a lesson plan that dealt with the basics of parliamentary procedure that was necessary for any FFA meeting they held. We focused on creating a proper agenda, and ACEs in the hole!

There were about 20 people within our workshop, and we began our lesson with creating agendas. I have always found that kids are only ever going to be as excited as you are, so if you show them you want to be there they will get excited and want to be there too. Using part of my innovation project we put the members into groups of 2 using envelopes with numbers written on the outside. Once everyone was in their groups, they were all given a worksheet that says triple R sun and given an extra piece of papers to write ideas on. We gave the students about two minutes to work in partners and create an idea of what triple R sun meant on their scrap piece of paper. We had a flip chart with triple R sun on it as well so when we went over what each part of the acronym meant they could copy it onto their worksheet and use it for their next meeting. Once we finished this part of our workshop, we transitioned into what the different ACEs in the holes are.

Jenna and Nell took point on this part of the activity asking questions and pushing students to guess harder since I did the portion of agendas. For this portion we had students work together to guess what the phrases “question of privilege” and “parliamentary inquiry” meant. We had two separate flip charts, one for each ace in the hole. Inside of the envelopes given to the students were two brightly colored cards that looked like ace playing cards with a hole punched in the middle. We went over the definitions, if they are second able, debatable, amendable, and if a vote is needed. Each student got to write down the definition as well as the chart for each and given the wallet size cards to take home and use at their own meeting for a discussion. As a wrap up Jenna, Nell and I went over a quick mock meeting for each of the aces in the hole and asked the group if they had any questions toward the end. This was a great experience and I absolutely loved facilitating this workshop to this amazing group of kids who were actively engaged the whole time!

AEE 216 Student Service Project

What did we do?

For my service project Neve, Jenna and I teamed up to work with mostly 11th and 12th graders on a Parliamentary Procedure workshop. In our workshop we went over Agendas and the two aces in the whole with students. Agendas were particularly important and useful for these students because most of the were FFA officers and having a solid agenda is something many chapters struggle with. The two aces in the hole (Parliamentary Inquiry and Question of Privilege) were also really impactful for these students. Many had very little knowledge of Parli Pro so by teaching them about these two motions they were able to feel more comfortable getting involved in meetings. These motions that can get anyone involved in a meeting so I think its really helpful for new and old FFA office to learn for their chapter meetings.

main takeaway

Main Takeaways

Personally, my main take away from this experience is that students have very broad understandings of Parliamentary Procedure. Some students in this workshop seemed as though they knew exactly what we were talking about when we went over our objectives while others, hardly knew what Parli was. I can see this being a challenge for me in the future. As with any topic, serving the needs of the greater population of the class is a struggle. That being said, I think all of the students where able to get at least something out of this workshop regardless of their familiarity with Parliamentary Procedure.

How does this tie to the class?

I think that this project was very beneficial for me. I think the biggest way that it ties to the class is that it helped me solidify my understanding of the topics discussed. While yes, before this workshop could recite the topics, I can not say I fully understood them. By making the lesson plan, talking about it, and answering questions, I was able to review and more clearly understand the topics. After this workshop, I felt much more confident in my knowledge and felt like I could share more with students in the future.