parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedure is the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Its object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...

, recognition, or assignment of the floor, is the exclusive right to be heard at that time by a member of a

deliberative assembly A deliberative assembly is a meeting of members who use parliamentary procedure. Etymology In a speech to the electorate at Bristol in 1774, Edmund Burke described the British Parliament as a "deliberative assembly," and the expression became ...

. With a few exceptions, a member must be recognized by the

chairperson The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

before engaging in

debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

or making a

motion In physics, motion is the phenomenon in which an object changes its position with respect to time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed and frame of reference to an observer and m ...

Rules

The general rule is that the first member to rise and address the chair after another member has yielded the floor (by sitting down) is entitled to the floor. Exceptions to this general rule include the following: * The maker of a motion is entitled to speak first in debate on it. * If a motion is made to implement a recommendation in a

committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

report, the member who presented the report to the assembly is entitled to preference in recognition. * If a motion is taken from the table, the member who moved to take it from the table is entitled to preference in recognition. * If a motion is reconsidered, the member who made the motion to reconsider is entitled to preference in recognition. * If a member has already spoken on the pending motion, he may not speak again on it on the same day as long as any other member who has not spoken on the motion claims the floor. * If the chair knows that persons seeking the floor have opposite opinions on the pending motion, the chair is to let the floor alternate between the opposing sides. This is sometimes accomplished by designating different microphones for those favoring and opposing a measure or having members hold up cards indicating their position. * If the floor has been assigned but the member has not yet begun to speak, another member may interrupt to give

previous notice In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take certain action. Such motions, and the form they take are specified by the deliberate assembly and/or a pre-agreed volume detaili ...

of another motion. If the chair made a mistake in assigning the floor, a

point of order In parliamentary procedure, a point of order occurs when someone draws attention to a rules violation in a meeting of a deliberative assembly. Explanation and uses In '' Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'' (RONR), a point of order may be ra ...

may be raised. Once a member has the floor, that member should not be interrupted unless a rule is being broken or the urgency of the situation justifies the interruption (such as a member raising a point of order).

References

{{Parliamentary Procedure Parliamentary procedure

Rules

See also

References