In addition, I have been asked to tell each
delegate, please when you pick up the mi-
crophone, grasp it firmly by the lower por-
tion near the swivel joint. Do not grasp it
up towards the front. This results in some
sort of electronic disturbance and distor-
tion. Hold it this way, and hold it firmly.
Do not hold it away from your face. With
the new microphones that have been put in,
the volume must be kept down to eliminate
distortion. They should be kept an inch or
two from your mouth. In this way also if
you turn your head, your microphone will
follow.
A few simple rules, hold the microphone
firmly by the lower portion, not up close to
the end. Speak in a normal tone of voice,
but hold the microphone within an inch or
two from your mouth.
Delegate Gleason, do you have a question
to ask the Chairman of the Calendar?
DELEGATE GLEASON: Yes, Mr. Chair-
man. Preliminary to my question, I know
the Committee on Calendar and Agenda
has a very difficult job trying to rationalize
and schedule time to keep pace with the
tight schedule that this Convention is op-
erating under. It is difficult for the Com-
mittee to establish what is a reasonable
rule for all times and for all occasions. I
would like to know before we vote on this
particular schedule prior to going into the
Committee of the Whole, whether we could
have some understanding from the Commit-
tee Chairman that if at the expiration of
the uncontrolled time period there are still
other members of the Convention who de-
sire to speak with respect to a particular
amendment, time will be extended upon the
recommendation of the Committee Chair-
man.
DELEGATE POWERS: In answer to
that, I would say that if it appears that a
delegate wishes to be heard on some sub-
ject, and he is not given an opportunity
under this limitation, steps will be taken
to see that he is given the opportunity.
This is quite experimental in the sense
that it is the first time this has occurred.
I believe most of the delegates agree that
there should be some kind of limitation to
debate. We are trying to be fair. We at-
tempt to be fair. If it appears that the time
allotted is not fair, some steps will be taken
to correct that situation.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Gleason?
DELEGATE GLEASON: I appreciate
those comments, and with that understand-
ing, I will vote to go along. |
I think the difficulty that some of us
have, of course, is that we cannot deter-
mine for ourselves ahead of the fact just
how many people are going to speak in
connection with a particular amendment,
but with that understanding, I think we
can go on.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the Chair,
before the debate schedule is adopted,
should also make clear two other things:
If you will look at the debate schedule, you
will see that it purports to control time for
debate on a limited number of subjects.
This means that the time on other ques-
tions is not controlled, except by the sen-
tence in the beginning portion, that no
speech exceeding five minutes will be
permitted.
Now, what this means in practical appli-
cation is this: after the Committee Chair-
man presents his report and we have had
the question and answer period, for which
there is no time limit, the Committee Chair-
man resumes his seat on the Floor. We will
follow the practice for convenience of hav-
ing him occupy the President's chair on
the Floor, but he will be speaking from the
Floor.
We will then, under this debate schedule,
take up the Committee Recommendation
LB-I for section-by-section consideration,
seriatim, for purpose of amendment. Sec-
tion 3.01 would then be open to amendment.
Under the rules that we are following, mi-
nority spokesmen are entitled to priority
in submitting an amendment. In this par-
ticular situation, there are, as to some sec-
tions, more than one minority report. As
to section 3.01, there is only one minority
report. Accordingly, when we move into
the section-by-section consideration, and
section 3.01 is called for amendment, I
would recognize Delegate Hanson, who is
the spokesman for the minority. At that
point, he would present the minority re-
port from the Clerk's desk. This, again,
would be a presentation of the minority
position, with questions and answers, and
not debate.
At the conclusion of that period, Dele-
gate Hanson would resume his seat and
would be recognized for the purpose of
submitting an amendment. At that point,
we would move into the controlled time on
that amendment, and the controlled time
indicated on the debate schedule would,
therefore, apply only to that amendment.
After action by the Committee of the
Whole with respect to that amendment, |
