A lot goes into conducting a Student Government Association meeting. Senator Tiffany Cook took the time to review parliamentary procedures with other members of the SGA.
“It was mainly just because we had appointed several new senators lately,” Cook said. “We’ve had senators that have had scheduling conflicts that had to resign. So we have picked up several new senators, and we had to kind of do a refresher because some of them that were appointed hadn’t really gotten that information.”
Parliamentary procedure helps meetings run, and Cook says some of the most common procedures the SGA use are for general things.
“We typically use the general ‘I move to do this,’ and ‘move to adjourn,'” Cook said. “‘Call to previous question,’ which we use to vote on something that we’ve been debating on. Those are the ones we use a lot.”
Cook says these procedures are important because they give everyone in the SGA time to speak.
“The main reason we use it is because generally the people in SGA and Senate specifically are a pretty vocal group,” Cook said. “So we want to make sure that everyone gets heard because, if not, everybody just starts shooting stuff out, and we don’t really get to hear what people have to say.”
Cook also says the procedures help things run more smoothly and efficiently.
“Especially in situations like with the Culp Renovations, we’re kind of limited on time in this room,” Cook said. “We want to make sure things are running more smoothly and efficiently. That way we can get things done in an adequate time frame.”
SGA Executive Vice-President Noah McGill said Cook’s presentation was informative.
“It will really help smooth the meetings along,” McGill said. “We went over parliamentary procedures towards the beginning of the year, but we had some turn over in the Senate seats, so this will be helpful for those who came a little bit later.”
Cook said that by using parliamentary procedures, they are letting ETSU students know that they are conducting meetings in a fair manner.
“I think it’s very important that we use parliamentary procedures because it lets students know that we’re truly valuing each object and each thing that’s been discussed,” Cook said. “We’re not just blowing it off, we’re truly giving it adequate time, allocation and things like that.”
