Page:Felt’s Parliamentary Procedure Upload 2.pdf/110

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106
To Amend.
§ 106

motion to commit is adopted it sends all pending motions and amendments to the committee as well as the main question.

TO AMEND.

106. If a motion or a resolution is not satisfactory, or if not in the best form to express the judgement, or carry out the will of the assembly, it may in most cases be amended so as to modify the meaning, or to change the meaning entirely, even if such a change defeats the meaning entirely, even if such a change defeats the original purpose of the motion. An amendment must be germane to the question; that is, it must have a direct bearing on the subject. While to amend means strictly to put into a better or more perfect form, to change or modify in any way, be it for better or worse, is called an amendment; therefore amendments may be used as a means of defeating a proposition by making it so different from what the mover originally intended—as making praise out of censure or by so changing it that friends of the original question may be forced to vote against the motion in its amended form.