2020 NCS: No Questions Allowed?

We’re a month out from the 2020 National Council Session, so things are starting to get REAL.  I’ve been using all of this to help with studying for a parliamentarian certification, and there’s a lot this year!  If you aren’t aware, I recorded a YouTube video about parliamentary procedure tailoring it specifically for the NCS.  While prepping for it, I pulled out the NCS Standing Rules and took a look at them.  I know parliamentary procedure isn’t the most exciting subject in the world, but stay with me while I go through this particular issue, because there’s something pressing I want to point out, especially if you’re a National Delegate.

So first, what are standing rules?  As opposed to governing documents, they relate to the administration of an organization’s meeting such as how delegate credentials will be handled during a session. Normally, standing rules do not deal with parliamentary procedure.  However, convention standing rules are a little bit different in that they can in addition to regular administrative rules.  You can find this year’s standing rules in the OFFICIAL Call to Meeting on pg. 3.

Normally, standing rules are rubberstamped at the beginning of a session, especially when they’re the same ones from meeting to meeting.  But you still need to read through them, especially if circumstances have changed such as moving to a virtual format.  So that’s what I did, and a couple of things jumped out at me, especially the one dealing with interrupting motions.  I won’t go through Incidental motions and all that (see the video if you want to know more), but basically, there are two motions within the Incidental class that allow a member to ask questions – one being a Request for Information (formerly called a Point of Information) and the other a Parliamentary Inquiry. Both are considered interrupting motions because they have to be asked immediately to remain timely.

The purpose of a Request for Information, as defined in the 2017 Workbook, is “to obtain information, directed to or through the presiding officer about the immediately pending business. The information that is sought must not be related to parliamentary procedure.”  It should be stated in the form of a question and can’t be used as a way to debate or further discussion.  For example, if a National Board member was speaking in favor of a proposal and said something that didn’t match up with the rationale in the Workbook, you could interrupt and say, “I have a request for information.” Once the chair recognizes your request, you would then address your question through the chair asking for clarification about the National Board member’s statement.  You wouldn’t directly ask the National Board member.

A Parliamentary Inquiry, on the other hand, deals specifically with parliamentary procedure.  The 2017 Workbook states, “The purpose of this motion is to obtain information from the presiding officer about parliamentary procedure or the use or effect of a motion, which is related to the pending business.”  An example of this would be if there are a number of motions lined up, and you’re not sure what exactly you’re voting on or what a majority vote would mean in a decision.  You would state, “I rise to a parliamentary inquiry.”   The chair would recognize you, you’d ask your question, and then the chair would answer.  Sometimes she might consult with the parliamentarian.

So as you can see, these are pretty straightforward motions, and they’re essential to one of the purposes of parliamentary procedure, which is to ensure a full and fair debate.  If someone doesn’t understand the point a speaker is making, she has every right to ask for clarification.  In fact, you WANT that because it ensures there’s as much communication as possible.  And it’s even more important that members understand what they’re voting on!  If they find out later that they didn’t vote the way they thought they were because they misunderstood what was going on due to whatever reason, then that could either lead to a reconsider of the vote, or worse, anger and frustration down the road due to members possibly thinking they were misled.

Which leads me to the point of this post, which is to point out that the only interrupting motions allowed at the 2020 NCS according to the standing rules are a Point of Order and an Appeal.  You can find this on pg. 4:

6. Interrupting a Speaker

Only a Point of Order or an Appeal will be allowed to interrupt a speaker. A delegate who wishes to make one of these motions shall join a virtual queue to speak as an interrupter and shall thereafter wait for the chair’s instructions before attempting to interrupt the speaker.

Neither a Request for Information nor a Parliamentary Inquiry are listed anywhere in the standing rules.  So basically, no questions can be asked.  That’s wrong.  And what’s even more strange is they’re not even defined in this year’s resource section of the Workbook as they have been in years past, so it wasn’t an oversight.

I really don’t understand the reasoning behind this.  I know there’s a Q&A before each proposal, but that’s not going to cover all situations.  What if a speaker says something that contradicts the Q&A, or perhaps he or she brings up a point that hasn’t been considered yet?  And why would you keep people from asking parliamentary procedure questions?  Parliamentary procedure can be confusing enough even for someone who’s familiar with it, and the NCS isn’t as simple as your average council annual meeting.  Things can get complicated very quickly.  I sent an email to the GSUSA parliamentarian asking for the reasoning, but I haven’t heard back yet. I’ll update this post once/if I do.

Regardless, there’s something you can do about it if you’re a National Delegate.  The standing rules can be amended when it’s time to adopt them at the beginning of the session.  The way to do this is to get in the appropriate queue and once recognized, state, “I move to amend the standing rules” and then follow with whatever change you want.  So if I wanted to amend the rule specific to interrupting motions, I’d say, “I move to amend the standing rules by adding Request for Information and Parliamentary Inquiry to the list of allowed interrupting motions in Rule Number 6.”  A majority vote is required for this amendment to pass. Once any other business considering rules is settled, a vote on the entire body of standing rules would be taken which would require a 2/3rds majority.  If I’m wrong on any of this, please correct me.

On another note, if you haven’t noticed already, there is a 45 minute limit on discussion for each proposal (not counting a technical failure on their side) per standing rule 5A (pg. 4).  There are a couple of ways to go about changing that.  You can either amend the rule at the time of the standing rules adoption (like what I discuss above), suspend the rule for a specific purpose (like certain proposals), or make a motion to extend debate during discussion of the proposal itself.

Well, I hope this has been helpful.  I knew I would be busy before the NCS (especially THIS one), but I didn’t expect to be writing this often!  Until next time….

Visit my other posts about the 2020 NCS!

Addendum 9/26/20:  Request for Information is the now the correct usage per the 11th edition of RR.

Addendum 10/4/20:   These two motions are now allowed per the updated Standing Rules!