Mckenzie's Service to Society - Characteristics & Rules of a Deliberative Assembly!

 In November, I had the privilege of working with the Somerset Area FFA seniors and leading a workshop on the characteristics and rules of a deliberative assembly. The students in this workshop were seniors, most of which had only experienced parliamentary procedure through their time in FFA. Most of these students were unaware of the characteristics of a deliberative assembly and I knew that this knowledge could prove to be very useful for them as they leave high school and branch out to other organizations that utilize parliamentary procedure. 

My main take away from this workshop is that students will be more engaged and interested in a workshop or lesson when they can relate to the material that they are learning to events or areas in their everyday lives. At the beginning of the workshop, I asked each student to write on a sticky note where they see parliamentary procedure being used throughout their everyday lives. They came up with a wide variety of places from 4-H meetings to the House of Representatives. As we continued throughout the workshop, students were able to relate the characteristics and rules that they were learning to these areas outside of school, where they will continue to use this knowledge for years to come. Students were definitely able to learn and take away more knowledge from the workshop when they could relate it to other areas of their lives.

The main activity of this workshop was “breaking down” the rules and characteristics of a deliberative assembly into terms that the students felt almost anyone could understand. The students really enjoyed this activity and being able to debate and discuss what they believed was the meaning of each characteristic and rule. This activity also allowed them to see how differently they all viewed each characteristic and rule. Not only did this activity help the students better understand the rules and characteristics of a deliberative assembly, but it also helped them learn the importance of being open minded when listening to how others may interpret a parliamentary authority. 

Not only was this project very beneficial for the students, but it was also very beneficial for me. While going through the characteristics and rules of a deliberative assembly, the students had many questions about terms or concepts that they found confusing. Being able to teach someone else about my knowledge of parliamentary procedure and teaching others how to find answers in Robert’s Rules of Order was very beneficial to my overall understanding and confidence in parliamentary procedure. 

I feel as though this workshop went very well and that the students had a lot of fun. My advice to others who teach a Parli Pro workshop is to not be afraid to admit when you don’t know something. Throughout this workshop, I was asked a few questions that I was not 100% sure of the answer. Rather than trying to create an answer off the top of my head, I worked with students to dig into Robert's Rules of Order to find the answer. Not only did this help the students learn how to navigate Robert’s Rule of Order, but it also provided me with some great problem solving practice leading into my final exam!

Mckenzie Mahler

Agricultural and Extension Education

AEE 216

Service to Society Project

Assemblies. The basics.

A group of people that come together to conduct business is what is known as a deliberative assembly. It is important to realize that there are different kinds of assembly that can be established in order to conduct business. Mass meetings, organizations, legislative assemblies, boards, and conventions. All of these have some form of members and every member has four rights these are:
1.)The right to attend
2.) The right to vote
3.) The right to debate
4.) The right to make motions
When a group is established they have to choose a parliamentary authority which will be recorded within their by laws. There are many types of parliamentary authorities to choose from, the most popular one being Roberts Rules of order newly revised (RONR).

The rules of whatever authority the assembly chooses is what they will base their rules off of. This can be changed however if they choose to have special rules of order which is usually something adopted from a different authority rather than the one being used. You can find what authority is being used in the by laws of the assembly.

When a meeting is being conducted there are four main principles that keep the meeting orderly and increases efficiency.
1.) focus on one item at a time

• It’s important to keep conversations germane, so that what you are trying to accomplish does not get confused in the mix with other items of business.

2.) extend courtesy to everyone
3.)observe the rule of majority
4.) protect the rights of the minority.

There are also 10 basic rules of parliamentary procedure these are:

1.  The rights of an organizations supersede the rights of an individual members
2.  All members are equal and their rates are equal 
3.  A quorum must be present to do business 
4.  The majority rules 
5.  Silence is consent 
6.  2/3rds vote rule
7.  One question at a time; one speaker at a time 
8.  Debatable motions must receive full debate
9.  Once a question is decided, it is not in order to bring up the same motion or one essentially like it at the same meeting 
10.  Personal remarks in debate are always out of order 

  There is a lot to learn about Conducting business, however  if you learn this basic content you have a good foundation to further your exploration in the wonderful world we know as parliamentary procedure .

Wednesday Words of the Day!

Welcome to our new series: Wednesday Words of the Day! (Just about) each Wednesday, I will post a list of words that students picked out throughout the week, including words that they had no idea about or words that they thought were important and would appear in the future. The definitions of these words are the definitions that students found in Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (RONR), 11th Edition, or definitions that they derived from both RONR and their knowledge of the topic

Deliberative Assembly - a group of persons following a parliamentary authority to conduct business
RONR (11th ed.), p. 1-2

Board - smaller than other assemblies determined by responsibilities and powers

Convention - a type of deliberative assembly; an assembly of delegates (e.g. Farm Bureau annual meeting) RONR (11th ed.), p.7

Local Assembly of an Organized Society - a local group that is part of a bigger group that has bylaws, membership, and follows the rules of larger group (e.g. FFA, 4-H)

Mass Meeting - a meeting open to everyone (e.g. town hall meeting) RONR (11th ed.), p. 5-11, 20-38

Legislative Body - constitutionally established public law making body of representatives chosen for a fixed term of office (e.g. voting) RONR (11th ed.), p.8

Parliamentary Authority - a book of rules on conducting business in deliberative assemblies (e.g. Robert's Rules of Order, AIPSC, Mason's, Canon, Demeter

Tune back in next Wednesday to expand your parliamentary vocabulary! If you are viewing this blog from an outside perspective, please comment below some vocabulary words that you think would challenge students!

Welcome to #AgEdParli!

This week, twelve unique individuals, two excited teaching assistants, and one driven professor made history when they attended their first two Parliamentary Procedure classes of the semester!

Let's have a look at some of the things that we did! 

On day one of the class, Dr. Foster began by providing introductions to each student in the class. This purposeful exercise reminded us that this class is more than a general education requirement, and in this class, students are more than just a number. Throughout this semester, we will truly get to know each other! 

Then, we took a look at how parliamentary procedure developed through the years and why it was developed. To get an idea of where this incredible system came from, please check out the video linked below that a group of students created last semester as their Space for Innovation project! 

Who was Henry Martyn Robert?  

Next, instead of getting our feet wet, we dove directly into the deep end, reading and learning about Robert's Rules of Order and parliamentary procedure. We learned, in depth, about what a Parliamentary Authority is and Deliberative Assemblies (and we got a taste of Dr. Foster's playlist). Did anybody know before class on Tuesday that there are multiple parliamentary authorities for a society to choose from?! 

Before class ended, we discussed the characteristics of a deliberative assembly. If somebody correctly posts these characteristics in the comments, there may be a prize involved! 

Impact Moment: learning how diverse this class truly is. Some students have experienced parliamentary procedure in clubs they are a part of at home, some at school, and some had no experience. A lot of students were members of the National FFA Organization, but there were a few who were not. A small number of students also had experience competing in the Parliamentary Procedure Leadership Development Event. The point is, this class is a very diverse team, and I am incredibly excited to get to know everyone even more!

If you are reading this blog and are not enrolled in the course but would like to follow our learning, next week's topic of discussion will be a short continuation of the rules of deliberative assemblies, and then we will be covering the topic of *drum roll please* bylaws! 

Reading to be completed for Tuesday: RONR 11th, pg ii; Chapter 1 (1-19); Chapter IV (81-99); Chapter XI (345-375); Chapter XVIII (565-599)

What did everyone think of class this week? If there are any lingering questions, questions about the upcoming reading, or favorite moments, I'm looking forward to seeing them in the comments! 

Diving Into Parli Pro

So let's catch up on what happened the first week of class...

WE CREATED OUR OWN SYLLABUS!!!

Yes this means content, objectives, grades... the whole nine yards. Kind of sweet, right? We took 2, 1 1/2 hour sessions to develop what we wanted to learn in the class and design our roadmap to the semester. As aspiring agricultural educators we learned some of the road blocks that one runs into when developing a course outline such as "there are not enough weeks to learn what we want too!"

Today was the start of week 2 and according to our syllabus we were to start laying the foundational blocks of parliamentary procedure (parli pro)! So today we learned:

1. The Purpose of Parli Pro

2. The Four Main Principles

3. Characteristics of a Deliberative Assembly

4. Types of Assembly

5. Two Kinds of Rules

The Local Assembly of Organized Society is one of the 5 Types of Assemblies and would include organizations such as 4-H and FFA. Below is a video of a 4-H group demonstrating parli pro terminology that I, of little parli pro knowledge, found helpful to watch as extra foundational layers to my base knowledge of parli pro.

Session 1 - Anatomy of an Organization - January 15th

Responses to your Tickets Out from Session 1!

What are you curious about?

• Whatever is being taught next week!
•  See the Syllabus!
• Anything/everything Parli Pro
• It will be great!
• What’s involved in running our own sessions
• You will chair a mock meeting in class! It will be fun and you will have a support network
•  Standard set of most common motions every member of an organization should know
•  See the Syllabus! We will be teaching 24 motions: 7 Subsidiary, 8 Incidental, 5 Privileged, 3 MTBBABA and Main motions
•  Bylaws
•   Yay for April 9^th!
•   How to word a specific motion
• Next Week!
• Do all meetings use Parli Pro? What if not all members know standard procedures?
•   It depends on the organization. 
  Educating your fellow members is key (we’ll address this in our 2^nd class)
• Rights of an organization
•    Laid out in the Special Rules Documents discussed
• Other events to help with Parli Pro
•  Just jump in and participate :)
• Special rules of order
•   See p. 15-17 in RONR
• Silence is consent – I’ve been in meetings where non-votes are considered no votes for personnel issues
• Depends on Bylaws and Special Rules of the organization
•  The legal importance of Parli Pro
•   You must follow what you governing documents say
• Deliberative Assembly
• See p. 1-2 in RONR
•  Optimal ways to run a meeting
•  We will learn by practice!

What did you learn?

1. Special orders
2. Unfinished vs. old business
3. Types of rules
4. Types of Assemblies/Meetings
5. Members’ rights
6.  Standard order of business (RRRSUN)
7. Purpose and deeper understanding of Parli Pro
8. 4 principles of Parlia Pro
1.  The majority rules
2. Protect Rights of Minority
3. Extend Courtesy to Everyone
4. One Item at a Time
9. Meetings must start on time, have a plan, and use a standard order of business
10. Definition of quorum

What do you want to learn more about?

•  Special orders/Rules
• See pp. 364-365, 369, 270 in RONR
• Why are different sections of a convention called sessions? It seems that they are all just multiple meetings of the same session
• See p. 625-630 in RONR
• Standing rules
• See p. 18 in RONR
• What does each motion do and when do you use them?
• We will learn in the upcoming session!
• How to teach Parli Pro easily and quickly to a large group of people?
• Will try to role model ideas.
• Everything there is to know about Parli Pro
• That’s a lot! ;)
• Standard order of business and how to apply it to real meetings
• You apply by simply setting up your agendas that way; See p. 353 in RONR
•  Bylaws – how do you go about creating and making your Bylaws?
• We will cover on April 9^th, but you could read ahead on p. 565–583  in RONR
• Powers of the Chair
• See p. 448-450 in RONR
• More about procedures and motions
• Keep coming to class!
•  2/3rds vote vs. majority vote
• We will talk more on March 26^th
• What votes required 2/3rds and how do I determine this quickly?
• See upcoming class sessions
• What are common quorum numbers?
• Just depends on organization, Read more on Quorum here;
• How is a township meeting run?
• Visit one :)
• What kind of motions can be made?
• See upcoming classes
• Elections
• Session 10 on April 2^nd!