I am still your state parliamentarian, Ryan O’Hara. This monthly series aims to teach each and every member the ins and outs of parliamentary procedure through short, easily understood articles. With that, I call this fourth session of “Parli Pro With Ryan O” to order!
Previously on Parli Pro with Ryan O
- Debate is used to describe discussion about the merits and shortcomings of a considered motion. There are many rules about debate, all of which make sure that all members are allowed to speak and everyone remains respectful of one another.
- A person must be recognized by the chair before speaking during debate.
- If a member wishes to end all debate on the current topic, they can move the previous question.
Picture this. You’re sitting through your fifth meeting regarding discussion about your HOSA chapter’s planned field trip to the Moon, and no one is agreeing on anything. Everyone seems to disagree on every aspect of the motion, and no consensus can be reached. After thinking it over, you realize that the problem might be in the way the motion has been worded. If you could change the main motion, then everyone might finally be happy about the trip. But what do you have to do to change the way the main motion is worded?
Make an amendment!
An amendment is used to change and/or modify the wording of a main motion currently up for debate. Above all else, it is imperative that amendments are clear and precise; they should state exactly where in the motion a change should be made as
well as the specific words being added or removed. In many cases, it is easiest if amendments are submitted to the chair in writing.
Amendments, just like all other types of motions, must be voted on before they are put into effect. It’s important to note that the vote on an amendment does not decide whether or not the main motion being discussed will be adopted. A vote on an amendment decides whether or not the proposed change will be added to the main motion. After an amendment is voted upon, debate on the main motion continues. The main motion is still pending until the chair calls for a vote on the motion (as amended, if the amendment was adopted).
There are two major rules to be aware of when making amendments:
they must be germane, and they follow the settled rule. We discussed germaneness in last month’s article; if you make an amendment, it must be relevant to the main motion. If your main motion is about a bake sale, don’t make an amendment about repainting your chapter’s
meeting room. The settled rule, meanwhile, is used to prevent a group from getting caught in an endless cycle of amendments. Once an amendment has been adopted (more on that in the next few paragraphs), you cannot propose a later amendment to cancel out the first amendment, as this wastes everyone’s time.
That might be a bit wordy and confusing, so let’s use an example! The main motion currently up for debate is: “that our HOSA chapter takes a field trip to the Moon next month.” However, in order to make sure that you get the most bang for your buck, you also want to take a second field trip to Mars. As such, you decide to amend the main motion.
After being recognized by the chair, you would stand and state “I move to insert the words ‘and Mars’ after ‘Moon’ and before ‘next month.’” This is called an amendment to insert words, and is one of three possible amendment types. If your amendment is seconded, debate will be carried out (much like with any other motion, following the guidelines discussed in previous articles), before the chair puts the question and has everyone vote on the amendment.
As I mentioned previously, it is incredibly important that every step of the amendment process is clear and precise. When making a motion to amend, your wording should be exact, and explicitly state what you want to change. Similarly, in order to make sure members aren’t confused by the amendment, the chair will always state the amendment, state the original main motion, and state the amended main motion before carrying out a vote on an amendment. This makes certain that every member knows exactly what will be changed.
But let’s say that you don’t want to go to the Moon. Maybe the endless vacuum of space scares you. Maybe you’re worried about aliens. Maybe you get space sick. Whatever the reason, you’d rather not leave Earth, but don’t know what replacement field trip you’d like to take. This is where an amendment to strike words comes in.
An amendment to strike words, as the name would imply, is used to delete words from the main motion. The process to carry out this motion is exactly the same as the amendment to insert words; you receive recognition, state your amendment - in this case, “I move to strike out the words ‘to the Moon’” - receive a second, go through debate, and vote.
A third possibility: maybe you want to go to the Moon, but the field trip would fall on the same day as your SAT. As much as you don’t want to go take a test at 8AM on a Saturday, you can’t miss this test because college applications are almost due. In order to make sure you can still go on the field trip, you want to change the field trip’s date from “next month” to December. In this, you would use the third type of amendment: an amendment to strike out and insert words.
This amendment, as you probably guessed, combines the previous two amendment types. You strike out words from the main motion, and insert new words. In this case, you would state: “I move to strike out the words ‘next month’ and insert the word ‘November’ after ‘to the Moon.’” The regular motion process is carried out, and the amendment is either passed or dropped.
In some cases, you may want to make amendments to larger chapter documents, such as bylaws. This may require the addition or deletion of multiple paragraphs, instead of several words. Amendments are applicable here; the process to pass the amendment does not change, but larger chunks of writing would be added or removed. The only notable change between an amendment of several words and an amendment of paragraphs is the motion to strike out and insert words, called a substitute when applied to paragraphs. When you move to substitute, you are moving to replace a paragraph or paragraphs in the main motion with one or more amended paragraphs. While the process remains the same, it is important to be aware of the terminology change.
Now let’s make things fun. Let’s say that Lizzie has just moved to insert the words ‘and Mars’ after ‘Moon’ and before ‘next month’ into our original main motion, but you don’t agree with her and wish to amend her amendment. Enter secondary amendments. I’ll go into secondary amendments a bit more in a later edition, as they can get very complicated very quickly, but - by using the terminology previously introduced - you can make wording amendments to the primary amendment. Note that you cannot make an amendment to secondary amendments, because no chair wants to deal with amendments to the amendment of the amendment!
If you want to keep things a bit simpler, the highly recommended path is to vote down an amendment you disagree with, and then propose a new primary amendment. Speaking from experience, amendments in amendments can get incredibly convoluted incredibly quickly.
That just about covers everything this month. With the school year up and running, it’s highly likely that you’ll find a need to use amendments in your HOSA meetings. Just remember the three types of amendments and the basic rules, and you should be set! Next month, we’ll close out our discussion on the basics of a meeting by going over committees and a few more types of motions. I now adjourn this edition of “Parli Pro With Ryan O!”