Incidental Motions

[Guest Ron]

We have six microphones set up for members to address the Chair.

At each microphone are colored lights to indicate debate (green), point of information (yellow) , point or order (red) , and point of privilege (blue). 

As the incidental motions have no rank among themselves, in what order do we take the members if all the colored lights are on?

[jstackpo]

Since "Raise a Question of Privilege" (not "Point of Privilege" - no such motion)  is a (high) ranked  (not incidental) motion, (see p. tinted 4 & T22), it gets top billing.  Then a point of order (PoO) (which can interrupt the speaker) - p. T20 ; then "Request for Information" (RfI) - no longer "Point of Information" as of RONR, 11th edition; , then debate.

 

PoO and RfI  actually have equal status, but, in my view, it is more important to get rule violations fixed than just asking for information.

[George Mervosh]

Try it this way, Guest_Ron:

 

i) WHITE when intending to make a motion.

ii) GREEN when intending to speak in the affirmative on the immediately pending motion.

iii) RED when intending to speak in the negative on the immediately pending motion.

iv) YELLOW when intending to make a request for information or to make a parliamentary inquiry.

v) BLUE when intending to make any other interrupting motion.

 

This is from the Standing Rules of the 2013 NAP Convention. 

 

Worked well.

[jstackpo]

GM:

 

Does (or did) the ordering of those NAP 2013 rules # iv and # v  imply a priority if YELLOW and BLUE are lit up simultaneously, at least in the Convention: Yellow over Blue?

 

That would give Request for Information a ranking above Point of Order.

 

Maybe it didn't come up.

 

Does the OP's question sound to you a bit like a test question in a Parl-Proc class?

[George Mervosh]

GM:

 

Does (or did) the ordering of those NAP 2013 rules # iv and # v  imply a priority if YELLOW and BLUE are lit up simultaneously, at least in the Convention: Yellow over Blue?

 

That would give Request for Information a ranking above Point of Order.

 

Maybe it didn't come up.

 

Does the OP's question sound to you a bit like a test question in a Parl-Proc class?

 

John, the way they were listed in the standing rules implied no priority, and of course a blue card for a point of order or some other interrupting motion went to the top of the list to be called on.  The President had several spotters sitting nearby.

[Kim Goldsworthy]

 

At each microphone are colored lights to indicate

debate (green),

point of information (yellow)

point or order (red)

point of privilege (blue). 

 

As the incidental motions have no rank among themselves, in what order do we take the members if all the colored lights are on?

Ooh! Puzzles!

 

Put speaking-only motions LAST.

Thus, put DEBATE (i.e., giving information) and POINT OF INFORMATION (asking for info) on the bottom.

Of the two, put DEBATE last, and QUESTIONS (point of information) above DEBATE.

 

The problem now is INTERRUPTIONS.

Both Point of Order and Raise a Question of Privilege can interrupt.

Of the two, a Point of Order is most likey to demand immediately attention.

Raise a Question of Privilege is less likely to demand immediately attention.

 

So! There you are:

RED (point of order)

BLUE (raise a question of privilege)

YELLOW (request for information and parliamentary inquiry)

GREEN (debate)

 

... in other words ...

1. high level interruptions

2. low level interruptions

3. asking questions

4. normal debate

 

Are you going to list RECESS and ADJOURN in your master list of microphones?

[Josh Martin]

We have six microphones set up for members to address the Chair.

At each microphone are colored lights to indicate debate (green), point of information (yellow) , point or order (red) , and point of privilege (blue). 

As the incidental motions have no rank among themselves, in what order do we take the members if all the colored lights are on?

 

I'm going to concur with Dr. Stackpole that I'd go Blue - Red - Yellow - Green. As noted, Raise a Question of Privilege is a privileged motion. The member should be permitted to at least state his question (some of those requests can be quite urgent). If the chair determines that the question of privilege is not one which needs to be addressed immediately, however, then it can wait until the red and yellow lights are taken care of.

[Gary Novosielski]

I like the feature of the original proposal that those seeking recognition for the purposes of debate can indicate whether they intend to speak in support of in opposition to immediately pending motion.

 

That way, the chair can alternate viewpoints, as suggested by RONR when the chair knows the views of the member seeking recognition.  In a large group, the chair is unlikely to know in advance the views of all but a small fraction of members.  A card or light or coded mic system would help in this regard.  

 

I've seen a system like this work with only three mics:   Favor, Oppose, and Other (all non-debate matters and subsidiary motions, or, when no question is pending, Main motions.  Motions which may interrupt the speaker simply step to the front of the "Other" line.