parliamentary procedure Parliamentary procedures are the accepted Procedural law, rules, ethics, and Norm (sociology), customs governing meetings of an deliberative assembly, assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of inte ...

, the

motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacement, distance, velocity, acceleration, speed, and frame of reference to an o ...

to amend is used to modify another motion. An

amendment An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. It is based on the verb to amend, which means to change for better. Amendments can add, remove, or update parts of these agreements. They ...

could itself be amended. A related procedure is filling blanks in a motion.

Explanation and use

Using

Robert's Rules of Order ''Robert's Rules of Order'', often simply referred to as ''Robert's Rules'', is a manual of parliamentary procedure by U.S. Army officer Henry Martyn Robert (1837–1923). "The object of Rules of Order is to assist an assembly to accomplish the ...

Newly Revised (RONR), all

main motion In parliamentary procedure, a motion is a formal proposal by a member of a deliberative assembly that the assembly take a particular action. These may include legislative motions, budgetary motions, supplementary budgetary motions, and petitionary ...

s can be amended, by so called "first-order" amendments. A first-order amendment can be amended, by "second-order" amendments. However, the limit is that a second-order amendment may not be amended, because it would be too complicated.

Secondary motion Secondary animation, also known as secondary motion, is flat motions generated as a reaction to the movement of primary motion by a character. It is significant in animation because it amplifies the character's motion via effects that appear to be d ...

s that, by their nature, include a variable element, also may be amended. For example, the motion to postpone may be amended as to the length of the postponement; the motion to limit or extend limits of debate may be amended as to the number or length of speeches or the total time to be consumed; and the motion to commit or refer may be amended as to the details of the committee or the time within which the committee must report.

Forms and uses of the motion

The motion to amend takes three basic forms: *Inserting or adding words or paragraphs. *Striking out words or paragraphs. *Striking out words and inserting or adding others, or substituting an entire paragraph or complete resolution for another. A

substitute amendment In parliamentary procedure, a substitute amendment is an amendment that replaces a portion or all of the wording in a proposal. Legislatures In legislatures, a substitute amendment kills a bill by replacing it if the amendment is passed. Legisl ...

is an amendment that would replace existing language of a proposal or another amendment with its own. An amendment can be used to water down a motion into a form that is more likely to be accepted or to convert it into a form that is more likely to be rejected.

Procedure

A proposed amendment is treated like many other motions in that it could be debated and voted on. This could be done even in the case of a

friendly amendment In parliamentary procedure, a friendly amendment is an amendment to a motion In physics, motion is when an object changes its position with respect to a reference point in a given time. Motion is mathematically described in terms of displacem ...

. An amendment could pass with a

majority vote A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the "#Related terms, Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a Set (mathematics), set consisting of more than half of the se ...

, regardless of the vote required to pass the main motion. After passing or rejecting an amendment, the main motion would still need to be voted on.

Filling blanks

A related procedure that changes the wording in a motion is the device of filling blanks. A blank could be created by adopting a motion to create a blank and then members could make suggestions to fill in that blank. This procedure is useful because it allows an unlimited number of suggestions to be voted on as opposed to the limit of allowing only first-order and

second-order Second-order may refer to: Mathematics * Second order approximation, an approximation that includes quadratic terms * Second-order arithmetic, an axiomatization allowing quantification of sets of numbers * Second-order differential equation, a d ...

amendments (i.e. only an amendment to a motion and an amendment to the amendment are allowed). An example are

nomination Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list. Political office In ...

s—they are, in effect, proposals to fill in the blank in the motion "that ________ be elected."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amend (Motion) Subsidiary motions

Explanation and use

Forms and uses of the motion

Procedure

Filling blanks

See also

References