SO MOVED? SO WHAT! By Ronald Reed, RP
While I have been in organizations for many years, I have heard one thing said time and time again that should never be said in a meeting! As a parliamentarian it makes my head want to explode when a member of the assembly, after another member has made a statement about something the organization should or should not do, shouts: “SO MOVED!” Whenever I hear someone say, “So Moved” in a meeting, it makes me want to shout back, “So What!” “So Moved” is a meaningless statement that does nothing to advance the organization’s agenda, it is out of order, and it slows down the democratic process. This frequently used statement does nothing to advance the agenda! Almost always, after someone yells out “So Moved” there is mass confusion centered around exactly what has just been moved. It usually takes a good amount of time to figure out what the statement of the motion is, which clearly takes the meeting off track and does not advance the agenda! 16
National Parliamentarian • Winter 2024
After thinking about this for a while, I wanted to know why people did this over and over again. The usual reply is, “We’ve always done it this way.” Custom is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome with organizations that use Robert’s as a guideline rather than a reference. Furthermore, shouting out, “So Moved” is out of order. It violates several rules found in Robert’s that apply to the motion making process. It violates the first rule of making a motion, which is to first obtain the floor. RONR (12th ed.) 4:4 states that the first part of making a motion is to seek recognition. Once you have recognition, you have the floor, and you begin with the first step in the six steps of processing a motion. That first step is that you actually state the specific motion that you want the body to consider. Because you state it specifically, your motion will get the attention it deserves from the entire assembly. Then the motion can move forward with a second. Shouting
