Super Duper Fun Procedure Topics!!

Advanced Parliamentary Procedure

Hi delegates, it’s Tal! Hope you are all doing well and working hard on your position papers. This week,
I want to talk about some advanced parliamentary procedure topics that novice delegates may not be super
familiar with. I’ll be going over formal caucus, amendments, voting rights, and dividing the question. For
those of you who do not have experience with dividing the question, I would highly recommend for you to
read the rest of this post and even doing your own research on it, because it’s a fairly challenging concept.
Here it all is:

Formal Caucus

Presenting Your Resolution

After you all finish your resolutions, you can motion to move into formal caucus by using the following
sentence structure: “The delegate of X would like to motion for a formal caucus with X-minute speaking
time per resolution” (the X’s represent your country and the amount of time). We would vote on whether
or not to move into formal caucus, and if the motion passes, each resolution bloc would send up a
maximum of ⅓ of their sponsors to talk about their resolution. Remember that we’ll be projecting your
resolution for everyone to see, so try not to read off your resolution word for word, but instead elaborate
on your ideas and make them convincing! If you finish presenting and there is still time left, you will say
“I yield my time to the chair”, and from there, the chair will allow the audience to ask questions about the
resolution.

Formal caucus is your time to shine! Make sure you and your bloc fully understand the goals of your
resolution, and be ready to answer some tough questions that other delegates may have.

Amendments

Changing or Fixing Your Resolution

Once we move out of formal caucus, debate will continue and people can motion to amend certain
resolutions. There are two types of amendments--friendly and unfriendly. A friendly amendment is
typically a spelling or grammatical error and is supported by the sponsors of that resolution. An
unfriendly amendment may change the actual content of a resolution and does not necessarily have to
be supported by the sponsors of that resolution.

Let’s say that the delegate of Thailand motions to amend resolution A/2 (this mean it’s the second
resolution for the first topic). The new amendment would be titled A/2/1, because it’s the first amendment
for the second resolution of the first topic.

After debate has somewhat exhausted, a delegate would motion to move into voting bloc. Once in voting
bloc, we would first vote on any amendments made. If any amendments pass, then we would afterwards
vote on the amended versions of the resolutions. For example, if amendment A/2/1 passed, we would
eventually vote on resolution A/2 with the changes that were requested in A/2/1. In general, amendments are
voted on first, and then resolutions are voted on in the order that they were received.

Voting Rights

The Ways You Can Vote

After finishing formal caucus and any debate, a delegate would raise his or her placard to move into voting
bloc. You would use the following sentence structure to do so: “The delegate of X would like to motion
to move into voting bloc”. Then, just for formality reasons, we need to have two speakers for and
two speakers against this motion. It is required that ⅔ of committee vote in favor of this motion in order
to move into voting bloc. Once in voting bloc, delegates have several different ways that they can vote;
these are called your voting rights, and they are listed as follows:

• Yes: indicates support for draft resolution
• No: indicates rejection of draft resolution
• No with rights: after voting ends, the delegate chooses to explain why he/she voted no
• Abstain: refrains from voting
• Pass: the delegate will wait for everyone else to vote and will then vote afterwards

Keep in mind that if you choose to pass, then you will only be allowed to vote “yes”, “no”, or “abstain”
when your voting time comes around.

Dividing the Question

A Fancy Way to Alter Resolutions

Once we move out of formal caucus, delegates will not only have the opportunity to make amendments,
but you can also motion to divide the question. This basically means that you can take a resolution and
divide out certain operative clauses from it and then make those clauses into an entirely new resolution.
For example, let’s say we have three resolutions named B/1, B/2, and B/3. The delegate from Thailand
motions to divide out the second and third operative clauses of B/2. If this motion passes, then a whole
new resolution will be created named B/4, which consists of the second and third operative clauses of B/2. Keep in mind that this does not change the structure of B/2. B/2 still has all of its operative clauses and remains a separate resolution. Dividing the question basically creates a new resolution called B/4 that is made up of components found in B/2.

When we eventually move into voting bloc, we would first vote on amendments, and then we would vote
on resolutions. Keep in mind that dividing the question is not the same thing as making amendments.
We would vote on a divided question along with resolutions, not with amendments. In my example, B/4
was the last resolution received; therefore, it would be the last resolution that people vote on.

Dividing the question can be a tricky topic, so if you are still confused, I would highly recommend doing
your own research on it or reaching out to us in the comments below!

I hope you all found this helpful! Excited to see you all soon.