A Slice of Parli

There was certainly a lot going on with Parliamentary Procedure during the 88th National FFA Convention though I was only able to see a small portion of it. From the general sessions, to the delegate sessions, and of course, to the Career Development Events, and everything in between, everyone caught a whiff of the Parli Pro pie.

My encounter with this event began with the Novice Parliamentary Procedure CDE. I helped with time keeping, so while my job was not quite as strenuous as some of the judges and others running the contest, I still learned a ton from watching the event. At some point, I even stole a piece of paper and started writing down notes--hey, when you’ve got as much as 13 minutes at a time (and 8 teams competing in my room alone), you tend to find ways to actively occupy your time. You can only watch the pie bake for so long!

I have included some of my observations below and have narrowed down some of the most important notes I took. Here is what I gathered from watching these young, strong minds get to work:

1. First of all, each team had a total of 14 minutes. 1 of those minutes was for them to look at their cards and write down notes. Immediately following that, they started with their 13 minute debate. In the Novice Parli Pro event, they must also include the opening and closing ceremonies (but they can skip RRRSU and just go to the N). On average, the opening ceremonies took around 2m45sec to 3m15sec to perform and the closing ceremonies easily lasted about 30 seconds. This meant at most, the team had around 9 ¾ minutes remaining for debate. Despite how low that number sounds, most teams finished minutes before the 13 minute mark came up. The only difference between Novice and the regular event is that they may only make the required motions in Novice, while the regular event needs additional debates and motions from the team.
2. Judges are very particular to wording of scripted lines (opening/closing ceremonies). So when the treasurer says “...and strive to build up our financial standings…” there would be a point deduction. Why? Because it is actually “standing” not “standings”. Certainly makes me wonder if I’ve been saying it wrong all my life!! The horror!
3. Alternatively, judges don’t care about customs or “extras” such as gavel taps or colloquial wording. As long as the right things are said or done when required, the extra taps and “properly moved and seconded” don’t really matter and end up taking time.
   
4. Questions really determined a team’s standing at the end of the day. I can’t say how much weight those points actually carried, but it could bring a great team to just a good team if they didn’t have solid answers to the questions. With this I’ll add some thoughts:
1. It’s OKAY to ask to repeat the question. Some even did it several times. No biggie.
2. “Officer Questions” or those pertaining to an office position seemed to be really hard for the members. It seemed relatively easy to me (and this is coming from someone who clearly has no Parli Pro experience). However I suppose it goes to show that one should never leave a rock unturned, or for the sake of this blog, a slice uneaten! As a future teacher, I have to remember to never assume that my students know something just because I think it’s easy.
5. Don’t be afraid to stray away from the same old, same old! When the cherry pies aren’t cutting it, try blueberry! In other words, some members really impressed me with their vocabulary. Instead of always saying “I urge the assembly…” they would say things such as “I urge the delegate body to stand by me in…”. I even heard some use words such as “diametrically” (and yes, I did have to look that one up) and “unequivocally”. While I’m sure they don’t necessarily get extra points for their flavorful words, it certainly made me want to listen more and if they were confident enough to use those words, then they were confident enough to do well in the contest. Just a thought.
   
6. I have many, many other notes (I wrote one page, front and back!) but I’ll end with one more note. If there is anything a coach/advisor can instill upon the team members, it’s to relax. Synchronization in speech and movements look good, but can sometimes seem too rehearsed and too unnatural. What is parli pro or CDE’s in general? It’s an experience of actual careers. Not something that is memorized and regurgitated. Actual assemblies where Robert’s is used is not going to always be as smooth as peach pie. Perhaps, contradictory to what I just said, I also thought there were moments when speech and movements should be in unison. Hearing the pledge of allegiance over and over again started to get stale until one team came in said it in perfect harmony, as it should be. There wasn’t any overlapping of words or untimed word cut-offs. Additionally, when the members stood for debate or questioning, there were some teams that all held their hands behind their backs and looked as one whole pie. Other teams had members who used their hand gestures while others kept them at their side or behind their backs. In all, finding commonalities and synchronization among a team seem to make them more poised, however, encourage participants to also relax and act natural in the situations presented to them.
   

In the end, I would say I walked away from my Parli Pro experiences with a full belly, but still could have had room for more. While I kept a rather critical mind (however, constructive), I know that those students would have blown me out of the water had I been in their seat. I can only hope to cook up a team as skilled and prepared as those teams were! Here’s to anticipation of another slice of Parliamentary Procedure!