Debating for boys

by William Horton Foster

ORDERS OF THE DAY.

15. Bills favorably reported to the Town Meeting by committees, and bills the question of the rejection of which is negatived, shall be placed in the Orders for the next session, and, if they have been read but once, shall go to a second reading without question. Resolutions reported in the Town Meeting by committees shall, after they are read, be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next session.

16. Reports of committees not by bill or resolve shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which they are made to the Town Meeting; provided, that the report of a committee asking to be discharged from the further consideration of a subject and recommending that it be referred to another committee, shall be immediately considered.

17. Bills ordered to a third reading shall be placed in the Orders of the next session for such reading.

18. After entering upon the consideration of the Orders of the Day, the Town Meeting shall proceed with them in regular course as follows: Matters not giving rise to a motion or debate shall be first disposed of in the order in which they stand in the calendar; after which the matters that were passed over shall be considered in like order and disposed of.

19. When the Town Meeting does not finish the consideration of the Orders of the Day, those which had not been acted upon shall be the Orders of the next and each succeeding day until disposed of, and shall be entered in the calendar, without change in their order, to precede matters added under rules 15 and 16 and 17. The unfinished business in which the Town Meeting was engaged at the time of adjournment shall have the preference in the Orders of the next day, after motions to reconsider.

SPECIAL RULES AFFECTING THE COURSE OF PROCEEDINGS.

20. No matter which has been duly placed in the Orders of the Day shall be discharged therefrom, or considered out of the regular course. This rule shall not be rescinded, or revoked or suspended except by a vote of four-fifths of the members present and voting thereon.

21. If, under the operation of the previous question, or otherwise, an amendment is made at the second, or third reading of a bill substantially changing the greater part of such bill, the question shall not be put forthwith on ordering the bill to a third reading, but the bill, as amended, shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which the amendment is made, and shall then be open to further amendment before such question is put. In like manner, when, under the operation of the previous question or otherwise, an amendment is made in any proposition of such a nature as to change its character, as from a bill to an order, or the like, the proposition as amended shall be placed in the Orders of the next session after that on which the amendment was made.