I hope that beginning this afternoon, the
daily calendar for the session of the Con-
vention will be distributed the afternoon
before. In other words, I hope that before
the day is over, we will have on your desk
in the committee rooms a copy of the calen-
dar and agenda for tomorrow.
Please keep in mind that the reason for
this, and the importance of it, is to enable
you to see in advance what is going to be
up for consideration at the next ses-
sion so that you can be prepared for it,
prepared to discuss it if that is your desire;
but also, and this is very important, so
that you will know what action the Com-
mittee on Calendar and Agenda proposes
to take for the next day and not have to
wait until the beginning of the session to
learn what it is.
Under the procedure that has been
worked out, the report of the Committee
on Calendar and Agenda will be practically
the first item of business. When Delegate
Powers makes his report, and moves that it
be adopted, the opportunity is then open
to any delegate to move to amend the calen-
dar, either to add or delete any item. This
is the device which has been adopted to
provide us with a calendar that tells you
in advance what is to be done and at the
same time leaves the final control of the
calendar in the hands of the Convention
itself.
In addition, as you are aware, the rules
provide that the Chairman of the Commit-
tee on Calendar and Agenda may be recog-
nized at any time. Any proceeding may be
interrupted to recognize the Chairman of
that Committee. If, during the course of a
session, because of some development, you
think a matter which has not been
scheduled should be considered in any way,
it will be simple for you to slip over to the
Chairman of the Committee, discuss it with
him. If he agrees with you, he can move
to amend the calendar right then and there.
If not, then, of course, it would go over
to the next day, unless there is a motion
to suspend the rules.
Now I think if we become clearly fa-
miliar with this procedure, we will accom-
plish the two objectives of the rule. That
is, to have the calendar fixed so that you
know ahead of time what is going to hap-
pen at any session and at the same time
accomplish the purpose of having the Con-
vention and not the officers of the Conven-
tion control the calendar.
Now, the second thing I do not think we
will be able to accomplish this afternoon, |
but I hope to have in operation by Monday,
is to have the calendar of committee activi-
ties posted every afternoon on a daily basis.
This is going to require each committee to
plan in advance its schedule at least by
noontime so that the copies can be accu-
mulated and put into one calendar, repro-
duced. These will be posted on bulletin
boards but also in addition, there will be a
copy of that calendar placed on the desk
in the committee room of each delegate.
At the meeting of committee chairmen it
was suggested that in order to permit dele-
gates who are interested in speaking for
or against a proposal pending in a commit-
tee, or testifying on the proposal, to do so
with a minimum of interruption of their
own committee schedule. Any delegate de-
siring to testify before another committee
should contact both his own chairman and
the chairman of the other committee. He
does not have to do it personally. The ad-
ministrative assistant can do it for him.
The two chairmen will then arrange a time
so that the delegate can be given a priority
in testifying before the other committee,
and be absent from his own committee a
minimum of time.
One other announcement. I am quite
sure that everyone noticed the absence of
blackeyed Susans on the rostrum at the
opening session. I want to assure you that
that was by no means an oversight of the
Committee, consisting of Delegates Murray,
dark and Rybczynski. They tried manfully
to secure an acceptable bouquet of black-
eyed Susans. They did procure some, but
they decided that their condition was such
that it was better not to grace the rostrum
with them. That was made known to the
officers. As a result, through the efforts of
the First Vice-President, we now have the
last blackeyed Susans of the season on the
rostrum, and they are presented to the
Convention with the best wishes of Mr. and
Mrs. George Monroe of Howard County,
and through the efforts of Vice-President
dark. (Applause.)
I have handed to me a memorandum from
one of the delegates, raising a question as
to treatment for federal income tax pur-
poses, and I suppose Maryland income tax
purposes also, of the expense allowance of
the delegates, and a suggestion that it
would be helpful to make an announcement
to all the delegates concerning this because
some are under what I am sure is a misap-
prehension that for income tax purposes
they need not report the expense allowance.
In all probability, they will be required to
report as income the expense allowance, but |
