Wal Hannington – Conferences

CONFERENCES
A Conference is an assembly of delegates called together by a special committee or an established organisation, for the express purpose of discussion and decision. It may last one or more days and its procedure is generally much more complicated than that of a Public meeting. Therefore, a Conference is not the place for a novice to be in the chair. It requires a Chairman of experience who has a sound knowledge of the Rules of Debate.

In a Public meeting the audience is there mainly to listen to what is said without actively participating in the proceedings, but at a Conference everybody present has the responsibility of taking part in discussion and arriving at decisions. A Chairman who is not capable can cause serious confusion in a Conference, especially if the Agenda is a complicated and detailed one which involves alterations to the rules and constitution of the organisation concerned.

In addition to the ordinary Rules of Debate the Chairman must be fully conversant with any special rules which have been laid down for the conduct of business.

SPECIAL COMMITTEE
When a Conference is to be held, the organisation responsible for it usually appoints a Special Committee to attend to the arrangements and details. These will include the booking of the hall; the issuing of notices calling for delegates; the selection of stewards and doorkeepers; the seating accommodation and platform arrangements; invitations and facilities for Press representatives, and the printing of material necessary for the delegates.

The conduct of the proceedings is usually worked out by the Executive Committee of the organisation. This will involve the drafting of the Agenda and time‐table; the formulation of Resolutions to be submitted; the selection of movers and seconders for Resolutions in the name of the Executive; the procedure for submitting Amendments; and the nomination of any Committees or Commissions which are considered necessary for operation during the Conference.

RESOLUTIONS
At a Conference the propositions for discussion which are printed on the agenda are nearly always under the title of Resolutions, not Motions. This is because they have already been discussed and resolved by the Executive Committee or one of the lower units of the organisation and are being submitted to the Conference for approval or rejection. If Amendments have been sent in for the agenda, they of course appear under that title against the appropriate Resolution.

CREDENTIALS
For Conferences, delegates must be issued with a special Credential. This should contain a perforated section on which the particulars of the delegate can be written or typed in. This section is given to the door steward by the delegate as he enters the Conference hall so that the organisation has a record of the delegates in attendance.

It is most essential that all stewards should be present at the hall before the doors are opened. They must see that every door is covered by one or more stewards, otherwise they will not be able to properly check the delegates’ Credentials and prevent unauthorised persons from gaining admission.

CREDENTIALS COMMITTEE
It is necessary to have a small committee known as a Credentials Committee, whose duty is to collect the Credential slips from the door stewards and compile a report on attendance and representation for presentation to the Conference before it closes.

STANDING ORDERS COMMITTEE
At a Conference where there are numerous Resolutions and Amendments, it is essential to have a Special Committee which acts in an advisory capacity to the Chairman. It considers the Amendments to Resolutions and when, as frequently happens, two or more Amendments are similar in character, it interviews the delegates who are to move these Amendments, and either secures the withdrawal of the unnecessary repetitive Amendments or arranges for them to be coalesced into one composite Amendment. They also arrange which of the delegates concerned is to move and second such Amendment. In accordance with the changes which they are able to arrange they make proposals for adjusting the time‐table for various items. Such committees are known under various tides, including Standing Orders Committee, General Purposes Committee and Resolutions Committee. They must of course keep the Chairman closely informed of any changes which they make, and this is usually done by one of the Committee submitting a factual report to the Conference on each separate item on the Agenda before it is reached by the Chairman. The Conference can either approve of the Committee’s report or reject it. If it approves, the necessary adjustment in procedure is made by the Chairman. If it rejects the report the Committee must take the proposals back for reconsideration. But only in very exceptional circumstances does the Conference reject the Committee’s proposals, because if the delegates most closely concerned do not object, the others feel that they have
no grounds to do so.

At political party Conferences there might have to be Special Commissions set up to function during the Conference on various aspects of policy about which statements have to be drawn up and submitted to the Conference. The operation of Committees during the Conference therefore makes it necessary for those who are responsible for the preparation of the Conference to engage a hall which has suitable Committee rooms attached.

CHAIRING A CONFERENCE
At Conferences of more than one day’s duration arrangements are sometimes made for different Chairmen to preside at each session. But the Chairman‐in‐chief is the one who opens the Conference and in the final session he takes over again and
closes it.

In a Conference, the Chairman is always expected to deliver an opening address. This might be either an individual address or one which has previously been vetted by a Committee and is intended to express the collective opinion of that Committee. Which form it takes depends upon the rules of the organisation. In any case, only the Chairman of the opening session delivers an address. Any other Chairman who presides at subsequent sessions formally opens the session without a speech.

CONFERENCE PROCEDURE
The general rules and procedure for dealing with Resolutions, Amendments and other motions have already been considered and these apply in a Conference, except where rules of procedure drawn up by the organisation or Conference
Committee state otherwise.

There are, however, a few special points that need mentioning here. First, on the question of speakers.

It is often claimed that the fairest method of selecting speakers from the floor of the hall is for the Chairman to point to the one who springs to his feet first and catches the Chairman’s eye. But this claim is a very disputable one on a number of grounds. Firstly, if a large number of delegates in different parts of the hall are clamouring to speak it is difficult for the Chairman to decide who is the first. Secondly, the Chairman, although he is expected to be impartial in his choice, can quite easily avoid choosing a particular delegate whom he wants to exclude from
discussion because he knows him to be a critic. Thirdly, the quiet type of delegate is not so likely to compel attention from the Chairman as the noisy and aggressive one. Fourthly, the choice of speakers at random can result in a disproportionate selection in respect to representation or point of view.

Choosing the next speaker on the principle of catching the Chairman’s eye may be a suitable method in a small Conference where unfairness can be more easily checked, but in a large Conference other methods are generally more satisfactory.

The alternative methods are: (1) That the names of speakers should be sent up to the Chairman written on a slip of paper and that the Chairman should call upon them in the order in which the names are received. (2) That the slips of paper containing the names of would‐be speakers should be sent to the platform and that a small Committee should collect these and submit them in the form of a list for the Chairman to call upon. In both methods we must depend upon the Chairman or Committee to be unbiased in naming the speakers.

The Conference always likes to know the names and particulars of those who take part in discussion. Therefore if the method of catching‐the‐Chairman’s eye is used in choosing speakers, the delegate who gets the floor should, before he commences to speak, announce his name, organisation, branch, or district that he is representing.

When the name‐on‐the‐slip method is used the Chairman is able to call upon the delegate by name and announce any other particulars which have been supplied. With this method it is a good practice for the Chairman to announce two speakers‐the one who is about to speak and the one who is to follow. This enables the following‐up speaker to be prepared for his call.

In a small Conference, delegates can speak from their place in the hall, but at a large Conference it is much better‐for them to go to the platform so that everybody can see and hear them more clearly. Usually a rostrum is arranged for this purpose,
which is at the side or in front of the platform, but a little lower. When the Chairman announces the name of the speaker in advance, it gives him notice to leave his seat and make his way forward to the rostrum in readiness for his call.

When a rostrum is used, the best method for signalling the time‐limit to the speaker is by the use of electric lights fixed to the rostrum. The Chairman controls these from his table and when the speaker has two minutes to go the Chairman switches on a green light for a moment. When the two minutes are up he switches on a red light which means that the speaker must stop. The Conference is able to see these lights as well as the speaker and if the speaker ignores the Chairman’s signal the Conference will quickly indicate its disapproval by calling “Chair”, until the speaker stops.

CLOSING A CONFERENCE
A final word about the closing of a Conference. The spirit in which it terminates its proceedings is very important and the responsibility for this rests with the Chairman. In the last session he must see to it that all officials and Committee members who are expected to be on the platform are in their places.

The Chairman is expected to make the final speech to the Conference. He should do so in the form of a summing‐up on the work of the Conference and an exhortation to the delegates to follow up their decisions when they get back to their branches and districts.

He must hold the attention of the delegates to the very end and when he rises to make his closing speech he must aim at bringing the Conference to an end on a note of enthusiasm.
The delegates should not rise from their seats until he finally announces: “I declare this Conference closed.”