In Legal Terms: Parliamentary Procedure

Whether you’re at a PTA meeting, City Council meeting, or watching our legislature at work, you’ll notice the Parliamentary Procedure that’s used. These rules exists to facilitate the transaction of business and to promote cooperation and harmony. But it can be a foreign language or a dance you don’t know the steps. To help us out we’ve got attorney Mary Largent Purvis, Director of Legal Analysis and Communication at Mississippi College School of Law.

Delta State University has a cheat sheet you can download to learn about Robert’s Rules of Order. And Project Guttenberg, an online library of free eBooks, is offering a link to download a free digital version of the updated original book by Henry M. Robert.

The National Council of State Legislatures has an online set of classes for elected officials to help them learn parliamentary procedures. InsideHigherEd.com recently published an opinion article that suggests college students would be better advocates for promoting world peace if they learn parliamentary procedures and employed Talking and listening, rather than shouting down other views.

Mississippi doesn’t have the technology for online voter registration. And if you don’t have a computer and printer at your house, you can just call your county courthouse, and they can mail you a voter registration form. Be sure to register by October 7th to vote in our next general election. The secretary of state’s website sos.ms.gov