Page:Felt’s Parliamentary Procedure Upload 2.pdf/69

§ 61 from being chairman of such committee. The presiding officer of an assembly will generally succeed best who makes it a rule never to appoint as chairman of a committee the person who made the motion, but such members, who from interest in the matter or from general ability, are best fitted to do its particular work. Then, if the mover of the motion be one of the committee, and the members do desire, they can upon their first calling together elect him chairman.

61. In many societies the presiding officer of the assembly is regarded as ex-officio a member of all communities; there is, however, no good authority for this, since only those persons regularly placed on a committee should be regarded as members thereof, neither does it follows that if he is a member of a committee, as, unless it is so ordered by the assembly, the committee cannot be deprived of its right to elect its own chairman. When the presiding officer is by rule of the society an ex-officio member of a committee he may, or may