Document:Merced's Delegate Guide

TIPS ON BEING AN EFFECTIVE DELEGATE TO THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

Be Prepared

- Read the bylaws and platform report as soon as you can - Make sure you read the special convention rules in the party bylaws that detail special procedures - Make sure you know who your delegation chair and multiple ways to contact them

TIPS

- KEEP MOTIONS SIMPLE, if your motion or resolution is over one or two sentences the body will probably vote it down cause there's too much to retain to effectively vote on it.

Suspending the Rules

To do business out of order or to change how things are done you must make a motion to suspend the rules which requires a 2/3 vote.

- If you haven't made an attempt to measure the rooms appetite to take on your proposal it will likely fair and waste time - Suspensions of the rules are not debatable - Using privileged motions to sneak in debate is RUDE

For example, a motion to amend the agenda can be phrased in two ways...

"I move to suspend the rules to amend the agenda so Platform is before Bylaws"

This is a compound motion, it passing will suspend the rules AND adopt the proposal. This is much faster but prevents debate which makes it more likely to fail when the body doesn't have a chance to discuss the proposal.

"I move to suspend the rules to take up an Amendment to the Agenda to move Platform before bylaws for 10 minutes"

A 2/3 vote on this motion would allow for debate for 10 minutes before separately voting on the underlying motion which would require a regular number of votes depending on what it is. These motion may be more like to pay but PLEASE make sure to specify a time limit for debate or you run the risk of throwing the body into hours of debate over something off agenda.

(SIDENOTE: Often times it's faster to move along the agenda as it was originally than shuffling it, because when one person does then everyone does taking a large amount of time in what will typically result in the original agenda anyways)

Privileged Motions

* Point of Personal Privilege

These are not meant for you to jump the line to say whatever is on your mind or make random requests. These are meant to voice requests regarding your experience such as the font on the screen is too small, speak louder/slower, the room is too cold. Sometimes things move so fast it can be easy for the Convention Chair to not realize you are using privileged motions improperly at the moment, so make an effort to be courteous to your fellow delegates and avoid abuse.

"Point of Personal Privilege, can the temperature of the room be raised?"

* Points of Information

THESE ARE NOT PRIVILEGED. They are interrupting but should only be used to REQUEST INFORMATION that is timely to the current business, not to make your own declarations of information, or to make untimely requests.

"Point of Information, can you explain the effect of the motion being voted on"

* Move to Adjourn

A move to adjourn the current meeting to set a time and place is privileged... but rude if you are not near the end of the meeting and will likely fair. People are much more open to discuss adjournment details when you are near the scheduled ending for the day.

"I move to adjourn to tomorrow morning at 9 am"

A move to adjourn sine die which ENDS the meeting altogether is not privileged and needs to be recognized in the regular speaking order.

* Points of Order

If you think something is not following the bylaws or RONR you can question it using a point of order. If you are not satisfied with the presiding officers ruling, you can challenge their ruling which requires a majority of the body to vote No overturn. Although, it is important to read the room as at the end of the day it is the meeting of the body. If the body seems to be content with how things are going, more business will get done if you tolerate minor imperfections and will be received better when major issues need to be addressed.

Elections

- Changing the voting method of an election can create undue hardships on election tellers, there are ways to save time. - If you reduce the time for candidates to speak, don't eliminate it if you can help it - If you try to increase the number of candidates eliminate per round don't get an arbitrary number but some measure of viability.

Don't: "Eliminate all but top two candidates"

Do: "Eliminate all candidates with less than 5% of the vote"