Parliamentary Procedure
Category: Objective Test/Presentation
Type: Team
Grade Level: 9-12
Competitor Limit: 1 team of 4 to 5 members
Event Guidelines
Objective Test:
- Team members will take the online objective test individually at the State Leadership Conference.
- The examination and performance criteria for this event are based on Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised.
- Contestants must furnish their own laptops for testing at the conference.
- The team score is determined by averaging the score of its members. The four teams with the highest scores are then scheduled for a performance before a panel of judges.
Performance:
- All members of the four participating teams will meet for instructions thirty (30) minutes before the first performance is scheduled to begin. All team members will be sequestered until their performance times.
- Twenty (20) minutes before each performance, each team will receive four copies of the case study to be distributed to each team member. The participants are not to write on a copy of the case study. The team may use the preparation time to consider procedure.
- Parliamentary procedure reference materials may be used during the preparation period but not during the performance. The following items may be taken into the preparation and performance room: a copy of the problem for each team member, the treasurer’s report, a copy of the minutes from a preceding meeting, and paper for recording the minutes of this meeting.
- No other reference materials, visual aids, scripts, or electronic devices may be brought to or used during the preparation or performance.
- Performances must include presentation of procedures that are used in a complete regular meeting of the chapter from the time the meeting is called to order until it is adjourned. Items designated in the case must be included in the appropriate order of business, but other items should also be taken up during the meeting. The secretary will take notes during the meeting, but the notes will not be transcribed into minutes.
- The problem may or may not include each class of motions, but all five classes of motions – main, subsidiary, privileged, incidental, and motions that bring a question again before the assembly – must be demonstrated during the performance.
- Performance time may be from 9 to 11 minutes. A timekeeper will stand at 8 minutes and again at 11 minutes. When each team is finished, the time will be recorded, noting a deduction of 1 point for each full half minute (30 seconds) under 9 minutes or each full half minute (30 seconds) over 11 minutes.
- This performance is open to conference attendees, except performing participants of this event. All electronic devices must be turned off. No audio or video recording will be allowed.
Competency:
- Parliamentary procedure principles
- FBLA National Bylaws
- Questions for the parliamentary procedure principles section will be drawn from the National Association of Parliamentarians’ official test bank.
Eligibility:
- Each local chapter may enter one (1) team of FBLA members in Grades 9 through 12 composed of four or five persons – president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and an additional member(s).
- Candidates for the office of State Parliamentarian may or may not be team members but are required to take the objective test.
- A student who entered the Introduction to Parliamentary Procedure event may not compete in the Parliamentary Procedure event with the exception of a State Parliamentarian candidate who is not a member of a team.
- All competitors must be on a team unless running for State Parliamentarian.
Judging
- The objective test will be machine graded. Ties will be broken based on the time the last team member’s test was submitted. The performance portion of the event will be evaluated by a panel of judges. An official timekeeper will be appointed. All decisions of the judges are final.
- Final rank is determined by weighting 20 percent team average test score and 80 percent team performance score.
Who Goes to Nationals?
The first-place team will represent Nebraska in the Parliamentary Procedure event at the National Leadership Conference. Team members should not have placed in the top 10 for this event at a previous NLC.