Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies/Article 7

by Henry M. Robert

Layout 2

 

Art. VII. The Officers and the Minutes.

[§§ 40, 41.]

40. Chairman^[1] or President. The presiding officer, when no special title has been assigned him, is ordinarily called the Chairman (or in religious assemblies more usually the Moderator); frequently the constitution of the assembly prescribes for him a title, such as President.

His duties are generally as follows:

To open the session at the time at which the assembly is to meet, by taking the chair and calling the members to order; to announce the business before the assembly in the order in which it is to be acted upon [§ 44]; to state and to put to vote [§§ 38, 65] all questions which are regularly moved, or necessarily arise in the course of proceedings, and to announce the result of the vote;

To restrain the members, when engaged in debate, within the rules of order; to enforce on all occasions the observance of order and decorum [§ 36] among the members, deciding all questions of order (subject to an appeal to the assembly by any two members, § 14), and to inform the assembly when necessary, or when referred to for the purpose, on a point of order or practice;

To authenticate, by his signature, when necessary, all the acts, orders and proceedings of the assembly, and in general to represent and stand for the assembly, declaring its will, and in all things obeying its commands.

The Chairman shall rise^[2] to put a question to vote, but may state it sitting; he shall also rise from his seat (without calling any one to the chair) when speaking to a question of order, which he can do in preference to other members. In referring to himself he should always use his official title, thus: “The Chair decides so and so,” not “I decide, etc.” When a member has the floor, the Chairman cannot interrupt him so long as he does not transgress any of the rules of the assembly, excepting as provided in § 2.

He is entitled to vote when the vote is by ballot,^[3] and in all other cases where the vote would change the result. Thus, in a case where a two-thirds vote is necessary, and his vote thrown with the minority would prevent the adoption of the question, he can cast his vote; so, also, he can vote with the minority when it will produce a tie vote and thus cause the motion to fail. Whenever a motion is made referring especially to the Chairman, the maker of the motion should put it to vote.

The Chairman can, if it is necessary to vacate the chair, appoint a Chairman pro tem.,^[4] but the first adjournment puts an end to the appointment, which the assembly can terminate before, if it pleases, by electing another Chairman. But the regular Chairman, knowing that he will be absent from a future meeting, cannot authorize another member to act in his place at such meeting; the clerk [§ 41], or, in his absence, any member should, in such case, call the meeting to order, and a Chairman pro tem. be elected, who would hold office during that session [§ 42], unless such office was terminated by the entrance of the regular Chairman. If there are Vice-Presidents, the first on the list that is present takes the chair during the absence of the President.

The Chairman sometimes calls a member to the chair, and himself takes part in the debate; but this should rarely be done, and nothing can justify it in a case where much feeling is shown, and there is a liability to difficulty in preserving order. If the Chairman has even the appearance of being a partisan, he loses much of his ability to control those who are on the opposite side of the question.^[5]

The Chairman should not only be familiar with parliamentary usage, and set the example of strict conformity thereto,^[6] but he should be a man of executive ability, capable of controlling men; and it should never be forgotten, that, to control others, it is necessary to control one’s self. An excited chairman can scarcely fail to cause trouble in a meeting.

A chairman will often find himself perplexed with the difficulties attending his position, and in such cases he will do well to heed the advice of a distinguished writer on parliamentary law, and recollect that

“The great purpose of all rules and forms is to subserve the will of the assembly rather than to restrain it; to facilitate, and not to obstruct, the expression of their deliberate sense.”

41. Clerk or Secretary [and the Minutes]. The recording officer is usually called the “Clerk” or “Secretary,”^[7] and the record of proceedings the “Minutes.” His desk should be near that of the Chairman, and in the absence of the Chairman (if there is no vice-president present), when the hour for opening the session arrives, it is his duty to call the meeting to order, and to preside until the election of a chairman pro tem., which should be done immediately. He should keep a record of the proceedings, commencing in a form similar to the following:^[8] “At a regular quarterly meeting of [state the name of the society ], held on the 31st day of March, 1875, at [state the place of meeting], the President in the chair, the minutes were read by the clerk and approved.” If the regular clerk is absent, insert after the words “in the chair” the following: “The clerk being absent, Robert Smith was appointed clerk pro tem. The minutes were then read and approved.” If the minutes were not read, say “The reading of the minutes was dispensed with.” The above form will show the essentials, which are as follows: (a) The kind of meeting, “regular” [or stated] or “special,” or “adjourned regular” or “adjourned special;” (b) name of the assembly; (c) date and place of meeting (excepting when the place is always the same); (d) the fact of the presence of the regular chairman and clerk, or in their absence the names of their substitutes; (e) whether the minutes of the previous meeting were approved.

The minutes should be signed by the person who acted as clerk for that meeting; in some societies the Chairman must also sign them. When published, they should be signed by both officers.

In keeping the minutes much depends upon the kind of meeting, and whether the minutes are to be published. Under no circumstances, however, should the clerk criticize in the minutes, either favorably or otherwise, anything said or done in the meeting. If they are to be published, it is often of far more interest to know what was said by the leading speakers than to know what routine business was done, and what resolutions adopted. In such cases the duties of the secretary are arduous, and he should have at least one assistant.

In ordinary society meetings and meetings of boards of managers and trustees, on the contrary, there is no object in reporting the debates; the duty of the clerk, in such cases, is mainly to record what is “done” by the assembly, not what is said by the members. Unless there is a rule to the contrary, he should enter every Principal Motion [§ 6] that is before the assembly, whether it is adopted or rejected; and where there is a division [see Voting, § 38], or where the vote is by ballot, he should enter the number of votes on each side; and when the voting is by yeas and nays [§ 38], he should enter a list of the names of those voting on each side. He should indorse on the reports of committees the date of their reception, and what further action was taken upon them, and preserve them among the records, for which he is responsible. He should, in the minutes, make a brief summary of a report^[9] that has been agreed to, except where it contains resolutions, in which case the resolutions will be entered in full as adopted by the assembly, and not as if it was the report accepted. The proceedings of the committee of the whole [§ 32], or while acting informally [§ 33], should not be entered on the minutes. Before an adjournment without day it is customary to read over the minutes for approval, if the next meeting of the board or society will not occur for a long period. Where the regular meetings are not separated by too great a time, the minutes are read at the next meeting.

The clerk should, previous to each meeting, for the use of the Chairman, make out an order of business [§ 44], showing in their exact order what is necessarily to come before the assembly. He should also have, at each meeting, a list of all standing committees, and such select committees as are in existence at the time. When a committee is appointed, he should hand the names of the committee, and all papers referred to it, to the chairman, or some other of its members.

1. In connection with this section read §§ 2, 34, 44, 65.
2. It is not customary for the Chairman to rise while putting questions in very small bodies, such as committees, boards of trustees, etc.
3. But this right is lost if he does not use it before the tellers have commenced to count the ballots. The assembly can give leave to the Chairman to vote under such circumstances.
4. When there are Vice-Presidents, then the first one on the list that is present is, by virtue of his office, Chairman during the absence of the President, and should always be called to the chair when the President temporarily vacates it.
5. The unfortunate habit many chairmen have of constantly speaking on questions before the assembly, even interrupting the member who has the floor, is unjustified by either the common parliamentary law or the practice of Congress. One who expects to take an active part in debate should never accept the chair. It is a general rule in all deliberative assemblies, that the presiding officer shall not participate in the debate, or other proceedings, in any other capacity than as such officer. He is only allowed, therefore, to state matters of fact within his knowledge; to inform the assembly on points of order or the course of proceeding, when called upon for that purpose, or when he finds it necessary to do so; and, on appeals from his decision on questions of order, to address the assembly in debate.’’ [Cushing’s Manual, page 106.] Though the Speaker [Chairman] may of right speak to matters of order and be first heard, he is restrained from speaking on any other subject except where the assembly have occasion for facts within his knowledge; then he may, with their leave, state the matter of fact.” [Jefferson’s Manual, sec. xvii, and Barclay’s “Digest of the Rules and Practice of the House of Representatives U.S.,” page 195.]
6. No rules will take the place of tact and common sense on the part of the chairman. While usually he need not wait for motions of routine, or for a motion to be seconded when he knows it is favored by others [see first note to § 65], yet if this is objected to, it is safer instantly to require the forms of parliamentary law to be observed. By general consent many things can be done that will save much time, but where the assembly is divided and contains members who are continually raising points of order, the most expeditious and safe course is to enforce strictly all the rules and forms of parliamentary law. Whenever an improper motion is made, instead of simply ruling it out of order, it is well for the Chairman to suggest how the desired object can be accomplished. Thus, if it is moved ‘‘to postpone the question,” he should say that if the time is not specified the proper motion is “that the question lie on the table.” So, if it were moved “to lay the question on the table until a certain time,’’ he should suggest that the proper motion is “to postpone the question to that time.”
7. When there are two secretaries, he is termed the “recording secretary,” and the other one the “corresponding secretary.” In many societies the secretary, besides acting as recording officer, collects the dues of members, and thus becomes to a certain extent a financial officer. In most cases the treasurer acts as banker, only paying on the order of the society, signed by the secretary alone, or by the president and secretary. In such cases the secretary becomes in reality the financial officer of the society, and should make reports to the society of funds received and from what sources, and of the funds expended and for what purposes. See § 52 for his duties as financial officer.
8. See Clerk and Minutes, in Part II, § 51.
9. If the report is of great importance the assembly should order it ‘‘to be entered on the minutes,” in which case the clerk copies it in full upon the record.