Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/101

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§ 40]
CHAIRMAN OR PRESIDENT.
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and calling the members to order; to announce the business before the assembly in the order in which it is to be acted upon [§ 44]; to state and to put to vote [§§ 38, 65] all questions which are regularly moved, or necessarily arise in the course of proceedings, and to announce the result of the vote;

To restrain the members, when engaged in debate, within the rules of order; to enforce on all occasions the observance of order and decorum [§ 36] among the members, deciding all questions of order (subject to an appeal to the assembly by any two members, § 14), and to inform the assembly when necessary, or when referred to for the purpose, on a point of order or practice;

To authenticate, by his signature, when necessary, all the acts, orders and proceedings of the assembly, and in general to represent and stand for the assembly, declaring its will, and in all things obeying its commands.

The Chairman shall rise[1] to put a question to vote, but may state it sitting; he shall also rise from his seat (without calling any one to the chair) when speaking to a question of


  1. It is not customary for the Chairman to rise while putting questions in very small bodies, such as committees, boards of trustees, etc.