Medsin General Assemblies Explained

Medsin has two annual General Assemblies – one in Autumn (AGA) and one in Spring (SGA). These are hosted by local Medsin branches and they are a time for Medsin’s branches, projects and campaigns to come together to shape the direction of Medsin and to share what they have been doing.

General Assemblies are also a time for Medsin members to network, get trained and get enthused about Medsin!

To ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible, General Assemblies have certain rules and stipulations relating to them. These are detailed in full in the Medsin Constitution, but please find a concise summary below.

Before the General Assembly

  • All voting members will be officially notified of and invited to the General Assembly at least two months in advance.
  • All branches, projects and campaigns must submit their activity reports to the Vice President for Branches, VP for Projects and Campaigns Director respectively, at least three weeks prior to the SGA.
  • Bylaw changes and other motions must be submitted at least two weeks before the General Assembly.

At the General Assembly

  • Chair & Secretary - At the start of the General Assembly, a Chair and a Secretary must be appointed. They may or may not be members of the National Committee. It is the job of the Chair to conduct the General Assembly in accordance with the constitution and bylaws. The Secretary must record events and decisions taken at the General Assembly, including the numerical results of all votes, and these minutes should be made available on the Medsin website less than two weeks after the General Assembly itself.

  • Quorum - Voting is only valid at General Assemblies if a quorum is present; that is at least one third of all voting members (branches, projects and campaigns) are present. This is to ensure that decisions made at General Assemblies are representative of the Network.

  • Roll Call - At the beginning of each General Assembly (GA), the chair will do a roll call, during which branches, projects and campaigns will be asked to collect their voting cards so that we can check who is present. This helps the chair and secretary to determine whether we have a quorum and also to make sure all votes are accounted for. All voting cards must be returned before leaving the room.

  • Voting Cards - If a branch president or project/campaigns coordinator is unable to attend the GA, they must contact the national committee at least 24 hours before the start of the GA, with the name of the person they have delegated their vote to.

  • No member is permitted to hold more than one voting card.

Motion and Debate Procedure

  • The Chair shall conduct the debate and decide upon the limitation of the discussion.

  • When a relevant motion is tabled, the Chair shall read the motion. The proposer may briefly explain the purpose of the motion.

  • All motions, including the alternative motions, need a seconder. If there is no seconder, the motion fails immediately.

  • After this the Chair shall ask if there are questions or points for discussion. If there are questions, the Chair shall make a speakers´ list and the discussion on the motion shall be opened. Speakers will declare themselves as speaking ‘for’ or ‘against’ a motion. The chair will invite a speaker ‘for’ and ‘against’ and alternate between those ‘for’ and those ‘against’ until sufficient discussion has taken place.

  • The chair will then proceed to a vote.

  • The proposer will have 3 minutes to propose the motion, and all other speakers will have 2 minutes to speaker.

  • The proposer of the original motion shall have the right to speak last before the closure of the debate.

  • During the debate the speakers shall address the Chair. The Chair shall decide when a speaker gets the floor.

  • After the discussion is closed, the Chair shall ask for amendments. An amendment can be submitted at this point regardless of the deadline for motions In the case an amendment is proposed, the proposer of the amendment may briefly explain the amendment.

  • After this, the proposer of the original motion shall be asked if he/she accepts the amendment. If the proposer of the original motion accepts the amendment, then the seconder of the original motion shall be asked if they accepts the amendment. If both the proposer and seconder of the original motion accept the amendment, it shall be incorporated in the original motion.

  • If the seconder of the original motion does not accept the amendment, a new seconder has to be found. If a new seconder for the amended motion is not found, then the amended motion fails immediately.

  • After this the Chair shall ask if there are questions or points for discussion. If there are questions, the Chair shall make a speakers´ list and the discussion on the amended motion shall be opened. Speakers will declare themselves as speaking ‘for’ or ‘against’ a motion. The chair will invite a speaker ‘for’ and ‘against’ and alternate between those ‘for’ and those ‘against’ until sufficient discussion has taken place. The chair will then proceed to a vote.

  • The proposer will have 3 minutes to propose the motion, and all other speakers will have 2 minutes to speaker.

  • The proposer of the original motion shall have the right to speak last before the closure of the debate.

  • In the event of no or no further amendments, the Chairperson shall call for any direct negatives to the motion. Should no voting member give a direct negative to the motion, the motion passes nemo contra without further debate.

  • If there is a direct negative, the Chairperson shall call for an alternative motion. An alternative motion can be submitted at this point regardless of the deadline for motions. The proposer of such an alternative motion shall speak before any discussion may begin. An alternative motion needs a seconder. If a seconder for the alternative motion is not found, the alternative motion fails immediately.

  • After the closure of debate, no withdrawal of motions is acceptable.

  • The Chairperson shall call the meeting to vote on the motion and the alternative motion.

A motion passes if:

  • No voting member gives a direct negative to the motion
  • It reaches a simple majority of votes

  • It reaches a relative majority of votes in case there is an alternative motion.

  • If a motion has not been seconded or has been defeated after voting, it shall not be reintroduced unless there is a procedural motion “The debate on a motion to be reopened”.

Point of Order

A point of order shall be concerned with the enforcement of interpretations of the Constitution, Bylaws and policy statements of Medsin.

A point of order shall take precedence over all other terms of address to the Chair and shall require the Chair immediately to allow the delegate to make his point of order.

Point of Information

A point of information TO somebody shall be a brief fact that is of value and relevance at this moment to the current speaker or to the meeting as a whole. It can in no case be used to express a personal point of view.

A point of information FROM somebody serves to put a brief question to the current speaker or the meeting at large, which is relevant to the particular debate.

Procedural Motion

A procedural motion shall take precedence over all terms of address to the Chair apart from points of order, but shall not carry the right of interrupting the current speaker or a voting procedure.

A procedural motion can be submitted at any time during a session. In the event of a procedural motion being proposed, the Chairperson shall after a brief introduction by the proposer ask for a seconder. If there is no seconder, the motion fails immediately.

After this the Chair shall ask if there are questions or points for discussion. The Chair shall make a speakers´ list and the discussion on the procedural motion shall be opened. Speakers will declare themselves as speaking ‘for’ or ‘against’ a motion. The chair will invite a speaker ‘for’ and ‘against’ and alternate between those ‘for’ and those ‘against’ until sufficient discussion has taken place. The chair will then proceed to a vote.

The proposer will have 3 minutes to propose the motion, and all other speakers will have 2 minutes to speaker.

All procedural motions require a two-thirds majority.

In the event of a procedural motion being carried it shall be put into effect immediately.

The following motions shall constitute procedural motions:

  • To change the order of the motions.
  • The meeting to proceed immediately to a vote.
  • The meeting to proceed to the next business.
  • Consideration of present motion to be postponed.
  • Let the meeting take an unofficial vote.
  • A discussion not to be recorded in the minutes.
  • Overrule the decision the Chairperson.

Voting

Decisions will be taken with a simple majority in cases of a single motion and relative majority in case of several motions, unless otherwise specified in the Constitution or Bylaws.

Majorities will be defined as follows:

Simple Majority More votes IN FAVOUR than AGAINST. ABSTENTIONS do not count.

Absolute Majority More than 50% of all the votes IN FAVOUR. ABSTENTIONS do count.

Relative Majority The proposal receiving the most votes carries. ABSTENTIONS do not count. In case there are more votes AGAINST than for any of the proposals, all proposals fail. For example, if there is a choice of two options for a bylaw change; members must vote in favour of one, in favour of the other, against both or abstain.

Two-thirds Majority The number of votes in favour is at least double the number of votes against. Abstentions do not count. For example, voting to change the constitution rather than the bylaws requires a two-thirds majority.

  • Voting is done by raising the Voting Card. The Chair will call each voting option out load. When called, the voting member has to clearly raise their voting card for the time necessary for the Chair to register the votes. After having called for the votes on every option available to vote upon, the Chair shall announce the results. Votes will only be counted if there is not a clear simple majority either for or against a motion.

  • Voting during elections will be done by secret ballot.

  • The ballot papers should be signed and stamped by the Medsin President. The Chair and the National Committee will hand out the ballots to members with voting rights. They have to write their vote on the ballot paper after which it has to be returned to the Chair. The 2 members of the National Committee will count the votes.

  • Ballots must always contain an option to vote for an ABSTENTION, and also an option to vote AGAINST all of the other options.

Other Important Things

  • Do NOT take your voting cards out of the voting room - if you need to leave the room, return your voting card to the chair, otherwise you will loose your voting rights for the rest of that plenary session.

  • Do not use the Point of Order or the Point of Information for reasons other than to make a Point of Order or a Point of Information. If you use it improperly three times during the General Assembly, you will loose the right to use these for the rest of the General Assembly.

What else happens at General Assemblies?

Fortunately it's not all about voting! The following things also happen at Medsin GAs:

  • Training sessions
  • Mini-meetings which are small group sessions that discuss issues of importance to Medsin and the future development of Medsin
  • Time for Networking
  • Updates from the Network
  • Reports and updates from the National Committee
  • Elections (During the Spring General Assembly only)

Last updated on Thursday 22 May 2008 at 15:02.