Manual of Parliamentary Practice / Rules of Proceeding and Debate in Deliberative Assemblies

by Luther Stearns Cushing

[27]. The principal duties of this officer are the following:—

To open the sitting, at the time to which the assembly is adjourned, by taking the chair and calling the members to order;

To announce the business before the assembly in the order in which it is to be acted upon;

To receive and submit, in the proper manner, all motions and propositions presented by the members;

To put to vote all questions, which are regularly moved, or necessarily arise in the [p27] ]course of the proceedings, and to announce the result;

To restrain the members, when engaged in debate, within the rules of order;

To enforce on all occasions the observance of order and decorum among the members;

To receive all messages and other communications and announce them to the assembly;

To authenticate, by his signature, when necessary, all the acts, orders, and proceedings of the assembly;

To inform the assembly, when necessary, or when referred to for the purpose, in a point of order or practice;