Roles and Responsibilities: The President shall appoint a Parliamentarian from among the members of the Association. The Parliamentarian has the responsibility to:
- Attend monthly Executive Board meetings and Representative Assembly (RA) meetings.
- Advise the President and other officers, committees, and members on matters of parliamentary procedure. The Parliamentarian's role during a meeting is purely an advisory and consultative one, since parliamentary law gives to the chair alone the power to rule on questions of order or to answer parliamentary inquiries.
- Consult the current edition of Robert's Rules of Order, which is the parliamentary authority for the Association on all questions not covered by the Constitution and Bylaws
- Advise the Executive Board and the RA of amendment procedures and review proposed amendments for accuracy. Proposed amendments must either have been sent to building reps two calendar weeks in advance of the meeting when they will be considered and voted upon, or have been introduced at the previous meeting of the RA.
The Parliamentarian may not act as a faculty representative. The Parliamentarian may not vote in membership meetings.
The Parliamentarian chairs the Elections Committee. Those duties are as follows:
- Appear at the January RA meeting to announce the opening of nominations and the procedures to be followed for the election of the WA-WMEA Executive Board and delegates to the West Suburban Council, Wisconsin Education Association Council RA, and the National Education Association RA.
- Accept all nominations on behalf of the Elections Committee no later than two weeks prior to the regular February RA meeting.
- Contact all nominees prior to the February RA meeting.
- Report all nominations to the RA at the regular February meeting. Members of the RA may nominate other candidates from the floor at the meeting. All such candidates must be active members in good standing and must give their verbal or written consent at that time.
- Publish information on each candidate for the WA-WMEA Executive Board positions to be distributed to all Association members.
- Determine which schools will need ballot boxes and which will use envelopes for voting.
- Distribute ballots to building reps so that elections take place during the week of the March RA meeting.
- Remind building reps of voting procedures. Building reps may not give written or verbal advice on whom to vote for. Voting lists are to be initialed by voters upon return of ballots.
- Determine the location for all ballots and voting lists to be returned no later than 4:30pm on the Friday of election week.
- Count ballots and report the results. No candidate may take part in the counting of ballots.
- Telephone or otherwise notify all candidates on the Friday of the ballot-counting, or within two days following the ballot-counting, to inform them of the results of the election.
- Retain all ballots for at least two months following the election. Challenges of election results must be submitted in writing to the Executive Board no later than two weeks following the publication of results.
Upon reaching a tentative agreement (TA) on the entire Master agreement, a written copy of the TA will be distributed to the General Membership by building reps. No fewer than seven days after building reps have received the TA, a General Membership meeting will be held to review all tentative agreements. The General Membership will vote on the TA by ballot. The Parliamentarian will oversee the voting process by doing the following:
- Prepare ballots and voting instructions and distribute to building reps.
- Determine which schools will need ballot boxes and which will use envelopes for voting.
- Remind building reps of voting procedures. Building reps may not give written or verbal advice on whom to vote for. Voting lists are to be initialed by voters upon return of ballots.
- Determine the location for all ballots and voting lists to be returned no later than 4:30pm on the Friday of voting.
- Count ballots and report the results to the President, who will have them published.
In the event that circumstances necessitate speedier ratification of a TA, the time limits imposed above may be shortened and the balloting procedures may be altered by the vote of a majority of Association membership.