Z.130. July 1996.

1 Chairing The President of the Association or, in the absence or at the request of the President, one of the Vice-Presidents, shall chair Council.

2 Voting Voting shall be by show of hands, unless otherwise directed by the Chair or otherwise determined by a majority of Council on a show of hands. At a Special Council held on a single-representative basis, a card vote shall be held if such a request is supported by 15 members of Council. In the event of a card-vote at a Meeting held on a single-representative basis, every representative member shall, as laid down in the Rules of the Association, have the power to cast a number of votes equal to the number of representatives to which their Local Association or Central Group would have been entitled if the Meeting had not been held on a single-representative basis.

Three tellers shall be appointed by Council at the start of the Meeting.

3 Central Group For the purposes of these Standing Orders, unless otherwise stated, the Central Group shall be treated as a Local Association.

4 Order of business The Council Agenda Committee shall draw up an order of business including, where appropriate, time limits for major sections of the Agenda. It shall have the power to composite motions, to reorder motions as amendments to other motions or composites, and to composite amendments. The recommendations of the Council Agenda Committee shall be made available to members by the commencement of Council. The report of the Council Agenda Committee shall be moved by its Chairperson or other representative immediately after the appointment of tellers. The mover of the report will then answer any questions on it from members of Council and will have the option to reply to any amendment to it which has been moved and seconded; such amendments shall be voted on without further discussion.

The Chair shall have power to lay down time limits for items within each section of the Agenda and shall also have power to have any vote taken after the expiration of the time limit set by the Council Agenda Committee (but without allowing any further speech) provided such votes are on motions or amendments moved before such expiration. The Chair may propose that specified motions be grouped into a single debate. Motions so grouped shall count as a single motion for the purposes of Standing Order 9.

5 Subject matter A statement of the subject matter to be discussed and decided shall be circulated when the meeting is called.

6 Speeches All members shall stand when speaking and address all their remarks to the Chair. They shall begin "President" or (as the case may be) "Vice-President", then state their name and either their Local Association or the fact that they belong to the Executive Committee or both.

Unless waived in advance by the Chair in a particular instance, the following limitations shall apply to speeches: (i) movers of motions shall speak for no longer than seven minutes to any one motion; (ii) all other speakers shall speak for no longer than five minutes on any one motion, amendment or paragraph in a report; (iii) no member shall speak more than once on any one motion or amendment, except that the mover of a motion or amendment shall have a right of reply provided a time limit set by the Council Agenda Committee shall not have expired. In order to expedite business the Chair may, during the course of a session of Council, propose that lower time limits be adopted for the remainder of that session.

Any member may formally second any proposition, but may in that case reserve the right to speak at a later time in the debate.

During a debate on a composite motion, one representative of each Local Association which has withdrawn a motion in favour of the composite shall have precedence over other supporters of the motion.

Visitors who are not members of Council may speak only on the invitation of the Chair.

7 Motions Any motion, or any amendment to any motion or report circulated when the Meeting of Council is called, shall be placed before the Meeting if it has been received in writing at Headquarters at least eight days before the Meeting begins, is relevant to the subject matter to be discussed and decided there, stands in the name of a Local Association and by that date has been certified in writing by the Secretary of that Local Association to have been approved by its members (either at a quorate general meeting or otherwise in accordance with any applicable rule of the Local Association). Motions and amendments proposed by the Executive Committee shall be placed before Council if they have been made known to members of Council in writing by the commencement of the meeting.

All motions received in time shall be duplicated and sent out to Local Association Secretaries and representative members of Council elected by the Central Group as soon as is practicable.

Apart from procedural motions, and subject to Standing Orders 7 and 14, any other motion or amendment may be placed before Council only with the leave of the Chair and provided it has been approved by a majority of the representative members of Council appointed by the Local Association in whose name it stands and has been made known to members in writing before the start of the meeting or as soon as practicable thereafter. If the Chair refuses any motion or amendment on the grounds that proper notice has not been given, it may be accepted if a simple majority of Council desires.

8 Amendments Where any motion has been circulated at or after the time at which the Meeting was called but in advance of the Meeting, an amendment to that motion shall be placed before Council if it has been submitted to Headquarters, on behalf of a Local Association, by telephone or in writing, not less than two clear working days before the commencement of the Meeting. The Executive Committee may also place amendments before the Meeting.

It shall lie within the discretion of the Chair to accept any drafting amendment which does not materially alter the sense of the proposition before Council. If, during the course of the Meeting, it appears to the Chair that there is a possibility of reaching a consensus or majority view on a form of wording or a proposed course of action, then this may be put to the Meeting from the Chair.

9 Motions to Close Debate Any member of Council may seek to end the debate on a motion or amendment by moving THAT COUNCIL PROCEED TO NEXT BUSINESS or THAT THE QUESTION BE NOW PUT. Such motions must be seconded and no speeches shall be allowed on them but the vote on them must be taken forthwith except that at the discretion of the Chair up to thirty minutes further debate may be allowed by the Chair before the motion is put.

The motion THAT THE QUESTION BE NOW PUT may be moved from the Chair.

If the motion TO PROCEED TO NEXT BUSINESS is carried, the debate shall cease and no vote may be taken on the main question nor on any amendment; if it is lost, the debate shall continue as if NEXT BUSINESS had not been moved.

If the motion THAT THE QUESTION BE NOW PUT is carried, Council shall vote immediately on the proposition before it; if this is an amendment and there are further amendments, the debate on the further amendments shall proceed normally; if the motion is lost, the debate shall continue as if it had not been moved.

10 Points of order Any member may at any time raise a point of order.

11 Points of information Any member may, with the leave of the Chair, raise a point of information.

12 Withdrawal of propositions Permission to withdraw any proposition may be granted by a simple majority of Council.

13 Ruling of the Chair If the Officer then chairing Council rises for any reason connected with the proceedings, the member speaking at the time shall sit down, and no other person shall rise until the Chair is resumed. The ruling of the Chair on any question under the Standing Orders, or on points of order or information, shall be final unless challenged by a member supported by at least two other members and votes, by a show of hands, of two-thirds of the members of Council present at the time of voting.

14 Suspension of Standing Orders Any of the above Standing Orders may be suspended by the meeting for a specified purpose on a motion to that effect supported by two-thirds of those present and voting by a show of hands. Standing Orders shall again apply immediately the specified issue has been disposed of.

15 Alteration of Standing Orders Any Standing Order for the conduct of Special Council business may only be altered by a resolution of Council passed at an Ordinary or Special meeting in accordance with the Rules of the Association.