View PDF Version: An Outline of Robert's Rules of
Order
MOTIONS
- Brings new business before the assembly.
- Fix the Time to Which to Adjourn
- Adjourn
- Recess
- Lay on the Table
- Postpone to a Certain Time
- Refer to a Committee
- Amend
- Postpone Indefinitely
- Main Motion
- To Create a Blank
- To Request Permission to Withdraw a Question
- To Take from the Table
- To Reconsider
- To Rescind (With Previous Notice)
- To Amend Something Adopted (With Previous Notice)
- To Reopen Nominations or the Polls
- Discharge a Committee (Under Certain Circumstances)
MOTIONS THAT TAKE A TWO-THIRDS VOTE (Any motion that takes away
rights from members)
- Previous Question (Close
Debate)
- Limit or Extend Debate
- Close Nominations or Close the Polls
- Object to the Consideration of a Question
- Suspend the Rules
- To Rescind (Without Previous Notice)
- To Amend Something Adopted (Without Previous Notice)
- Discharge a Committee (Under Certain Circumstances)
Postpone Indefinitely
- Purpose: To kill the main motion for the
duration of the meeting.
- Needs a second.
- Is not amendable, but while this motion is pending the main
motion can be amended.
- Debatable, and debate can go to the merits of the main
motion.
- Majority to adopt.
- Only an affirmative vote can be reconsidered.
- Result: Kills the main motion for the
duration of the session.
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- Purpose: To change the motion; proposed
amendments must be germane to the main motion.
- Needs a second
- Is amendable, but it must be germane or related to the
amendment.
- Debatable. Debate goes only to the amendment.
- Majority vote to adopt. If amending a motion or document that
takes two-thirds vote to adopt, the proposed amendment takes only
a majority vote.
- Can be reconsidered.
- Result: If adopted, the proposed change
becomes part of the main motion.
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- Purpose: Have a small group investigate a
proposal.
- Needs a second.
- Any variable in the motion is amendable.
- Debatable. Debate goes only to the merits of referring the
motion to a committee.
- Majority vote to adopt.
- Can be reconsidered if the committee hasn't begun discussion
of the motion.
- Result: If adopted, the motion goes to the
committee to investigate and does not return to the membership
until the committee is ready to report or until the membership
has adopted a time for the committee to report back to the
assembly.
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- Purpose: Have the assembly act as a
committee.
- Needs a second.
- Is debatable. Debate is on the merits of informal
consideration
- Majority vote to adopt.
- Only a negative vote can be reconsidered.
- Result: If adopted, this motion enables the
assembly to act as the committee. Its effect is to take away the
restrictions on debating the main motion and any proposed
amendments. Any other motions made are under the regular rules of
debate. By a two-thirds vote, members can limit the length or
number of speeches or can close debate.
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- Purpose: To put off or delay a
decision.
- Needs a second.
- The time element is amendable.
- Debatable. Debate goes only to the merits of postponing.
- Majority vote to adopt.
- Can be reconsidered.
- Result: Discussion and decision are put off
until later in the meeting or until the next meeting when no
business is pending.
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- Purpose: To ensure that a motion will be
taken up at a specified time.
- Needs a second.
- Debatable.
- Time is amendable.
- A two-thirds vote to adopt.
- Can be reconsidered.
- Result: If adopted, it must be taken up at
the specified time even if business is pending.
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- Purpose: To limit or extend the time of
debate or the number of times a person can speak in debate; or to
put a time limit on a particular motion. For example: to limit
the entire debate to 30 minutes.
- Needs a second.
- Time element is amendable.
- Not debatable.
- Takes a two-thirds vote to adopt.
- Only an affirmative vote can be reconsidered without debate
before the time limit expires. If partially carried out, only the
time remaining can be reconsidered.
- If the motion has been voted down, it can be made again after
there has been some progress in the debate.
- Result: It changes the standard rules of
debate.
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- Purpose: To stop debate and immediately take
the vote.
- Needs a second.
- Not amendable.
- Not debatable.
- Two-thirds vote to adopt.
- Can be reconsidered without debate before any vote has been
taken under the order of the previous question.
- Result: If adopted, the members take a vote
on the immediate pending question. If the previous question is
called on all pending questions, then the vote is taken on all
pending questions.
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- Purpose: To set the main motion aside
temporarily in order to take up something of immediate urgency.
The intent is not to kill the motion or to put it off to the next
meeting.
- Needs a second.
- Not amendable.
- Not debatable.
- Takes a majority to adopt.
- Can't be reconsidered. If adopted, it can be taken from the
table; and if it is defeated, it can be made again after debate
has progressed and something more urgent comes up again.
- Result: If adopted, it places the main
motion and any of its adhering motions on the table or in the
hands of the secretary. It stays on the table until someone moves
to take it from the table.
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- Purpose: Make the assembly conform to the
agenda or order of business, or make the assembly take up a
general order or special order.
- Does not require a second.
- Not amendable.
- Not debatable.
- No vote is taken unless the members want to set aside the
orders of the day, which takes a two-thirds vote.
- Cannot be reconsidered.
- Result: Stop whatever the assembly is doing
and go to the orders of the day.
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- Purpose: Permits a member to make a request
or a main motion relating to the rights and privileges of the
assembly or a members and to consider it immediately, because of
its urgency, while other business is pending.
- It does not need a second.
- Not debatable.
- Chair rules on the request.
- Result: The chair's ruling determines the
outcome.
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- Purpose: To take a short intermission and
then resume business where the members left off. As a privileged
motion, a motion to recess is made when other business is
pending.
- Needs a second.
- Length of recess is amendable.
- Not debatable.
- Majority vote to adopt.
- Can't be reconsidered.
- Result: Members take a short break.
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- Purpose: To end the meeting NOW!
- Needs a second.
- Not amendable.
- Not debatable.
- A majority vote to adopt.
- Can't be reconsidered but can be made again after some
progress in the meeting.
- Result: It ends the meeting, and the
business halts at the point where the members adjourned. If the
members are in the middle of discussing a motion, this motion
will come up at the next meeting under unfinished business and
general orders.
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- Purpose: To set a later time to continue
this meeting before the next regular meeting. In parliamentary
terminology, it sets the time for an adjourned meeting.
- Needs a second.
- The time and date of the adjourned meeting are
amendable.
- Not debatable.
- A majority vote adopts.
- Can be reconsidered.
- Result: Sets the date, place, and time for
the meeting to continue.
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- Purpose: To set the time to adjourn the
meeting.
- Needs a second.
- Amendable.
- Is debatable because it is an incidental main motion.
- Takes a majority to adopt.
- Can't be reconsidered.
- Result: The members must adjourn at the time
they have now set for adjournment. When that time comes, the
presiding officer must announce that the time for adjournment has
arrived and then adjourn the meeting. If members want to continue
the meeting at this pont, they must move to suspend the rules in
order to continue the meeting.
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- Purpose: To correct a breach in the
rules.
- No second.
- Not debatable.
- Presiding officer rules on the point.
- Cannot be reconsidered.
- Result: The chair's ruling stands unless
someone appeals it.
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- Purpose: To disagree with the chair's ruling
and let the members decide the disagreement by taking a
vote.
- Needs a second.
- Must be made at the time the ruling was made.
- Debatable. However, it is not debatable if it relates to
rules of speaking, relates to the priority of business (order of
business), or applies to a ruling on an undebatable motion.
- Not amendable.
- Majority or tie vote sustains the decision of the chair.
- Can be reconsidered.
- Result: If adopted, it upholds the chair's
ruling.
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- Purpose: Withdraw or modify a motion without
taking a vote.
- Does not need a second if asking permission to withdraw.
Needs a second if modifying the motion.
- Not debatable.
- Vote by general consent when asking permission to
withdraw.
- The vote to modify can be reconsidered. Only the negative
vote in withdrawing the motion can be reconsidered.
- Result: When withdrawn, it is as if the
motion had never been made. If modified, then it is presented to
the assembly in the modified form.
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- Purpose: To prevent the main motion from
being considered.
- No second.
- Not debatable.
- Takes a two-thirds vote in the negative not to consider.
- Only a negative vote, not an affirmative vote, can be
reconsidered.
- Result: If two-thirds of the members vote in
the negative, then the motion cannot be considered for the
duration of the meeting. It can be proposed again at another
meeting.
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- Purpose: To doubt the result of the
vote.
- No second.
- Not debatable.
- Result: The vote is immediately retaken in a
different way than it was originally taken.
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- Purpose: To set aside a rule of the assembly
(except bylaws or the corporate charter).
- Needs a second.
- Not debatable.
- Not amendable.
- Takes a two-thirds vote.
- Cannot be reconsidered.
- Result: Rules are set aside so that members
can do something contrary to the rules.
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- Purpose: To take a motion from the
table.
- Needs a second.
- Not debatable.
- Needs a majority to adopt.
- Cannot be reconsidered.
- Result: Takes a motion from the table, and
it now becomes the immediate pending business.
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- Purpose: To reconsider the vote on a
motion.
- Only a member who voted on the prevailing side can make the
motion.
- Needs a second.
- Debatable if the motion it reconsiders is debatable.
- Majority vote to adopt.
- Cannot be reconsidered.
- Can be made but not considered when other business is
pending.
- Result: If adopted, the motion is again
before the assembly as if it had not been voted on.
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- Purpose: To change something previously
adopted either by striking out the entire action or by changing
part of it.
- Needs a second.
- Is debatable.
- Majority vote with previous notice.
- Negative vote only can be reconsidered.
- Two-thirds vote or majority vote of the entire membership
without previous notice. (The reason for such a high vote is to
protect the rights of the absent members.)
- Result: If this motion is adopted, the
previously adopted motion is reversed or changed.
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- Purpose: To take a matter out of the hands
of the committee before its report is given so that the assembly
can decide.
- Needs a second.
- Is amendable.
- Is debatable. Debate can go to the merits of the question in
the committee.
- Vote required: If no previous notice has
been given, either a two-thirds vote or a majority of the entire
membership is needed, whichever is more practical to obtain. If
previous notice has been given, a majority vote is needed. If the
committee fails to report at the time specified or if the
committee is giving a partial report, then it takes only a
majority vote.
- Result: If adopted and if a motion was
referred to the committee by a subsidiary motion, then the motion
is immediately before the assembly for discussion.
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