Page:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies (1876).djvu/136

136 In forming a Constitution and By-Laws it is always best to procure copies of those adopted by several similar societies, and for the committee, after comparing them, to select one as the basis of their own, amending each article just as their own report is amended by the society. When they have completed amending the Constitution it is adopted by the committee. The By-Laws are treated in the same way; and then, having finished the work assigned them, some one moves “that the committee rise, and that the chairman (or some other member) report the Constitution and By-Laws to the assembly.” If this is adopted, the Constitution and By-Laws are written out, and a brief report made of this form: “Your committee, appointed to draft a Constitution and By-Laws, would respectfully submit the following, with the recommendation that they be adopted as the Constitution and By-Laws of this society,” which is signed by all the members of the committee that concur in it. Sometimes the report is only signed by the chairman of the committee.

In the organization just given it is assumed that both a Constitution and By-Laws are