Parliamentary Procedures 1
PART I DEFINITIONS

Quorum: A quorum is the minimum number of members required at a  meeting to conduct business.

Chair: The chair is the person presiding over the meeting. This will be the Speaker.

Floor: A person who has been granted the right to speak by the Speaker has obtained the floor.

Precedence: The rank of motions is their order of precedence.  Generally speaking, a motion of high precedence may be made while a  motion of lower precedence is pending. The rank of the parliamentary motions is given in Part IV.

Yield: A motion of low precedence yields to one of higher precedence.

Pending: A pending motion is one that has been brought before the  Legislature and which has not yet been disposed of. A motion can be  disposed of in many ways, including the following: referring the question  to a committee, postponing the question, or voting to pass or defeat the  motion. An immediately pending motion is the one being considered at  the time in question. For example, a piece of  legislation may be pending  while an amendment to that legislation is immediately pending. The  amendment would have to be dealt with by the Legislature before the  legislation could be voted on directly.

Question: The immediately pending motion is often referred to as the question.

Entertain: The Speaker entertains a motion when s/he accepts or  allows it to be brought before the Legislature. Sometimes when the  Speaker sees the need for a particular motion to be made, s/he may  state that s/he will entertain the particular motion. For example, if  everyone looks like they are about to fall asleep, the Speaker can  suggest that s/he will entertain a recess for ten minutes. A member can  then make the suggested motion by merely saying, "I so move."

Out of order: Motions, debate, or actions that are not allowed under  the rules of a given situation are out of order.

Dilatory: A dilatory motion is one intended to disrupt or impede  business and may be ruled out of order by the Speaker.

Recess: A recess is a break in a meeting.

Adjournment: An adjournment is a termination of a meeting.  

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