AGENDA AND MINUTES

339
the original resolution is submitted. If the amendment is
lost, the chairman will then proceed to put the original
resolution. If the amendment is carried, it then takes the
place of the original resolution, and, notwithstanding that
it has already been voted upon by the meeting, the chairman
will again put it in the form of a substantive motion.

In minuting a motion to which an amendment is proposed,
it is desirable to give the name of the proposer and seconder
of the original motion, and care must be taken to set out
the exact words of the motion, then to record the name of
the proposer and seconder of the amendment with the exact
wording of the amendment, and the secretary should be
careful to state in his minute the declaration of the chair-
man upon the voting, first of the amendment, and, if that
amendment is carried, also of the substantive motion. If
two amendments are proposed to the same motion, the
first amendment (after being seconded) should be disposed
of before the chairman accepts a second amendment. It is
not usual to allow the same person to move more than one
amendment to any particular motion.

If an amendment is proposed and finds no seconder, it
drops, and the chairman passes on to the main motion or
other next business without putting the amendment to the
meeting. In that case, there will not be minuted any record
of the amendment that failed to find a seconder.

[t is not necessary to record on the minutes, in the case
of a vote taken by show of hands, the exact number voting
for or against the resolution, though if the chairman an-
nounces those numbers there is no objection to recording
them. If the chairman announces a resolution to be ‘carried
unanimously,” that fact should be recorded, and where a
majority of voters vote in favour of a resolution and a
minority remain neutral, it may be recorded that the resolu-
tions was carried nem. con. This expression, which is an
abbreviation of the words ‘nemine contradicente,” is in
ordinary acceptation, only a method of recording the fact
that no one actually voted against the resolution. Strictly
speaking, however, the expression ‘nem. con.’ is a par-
liamentary expression, and according to the Encyclopaedia
of the Laws of England (Vol. 9, page 594) the words signify
the unanimous consent of the House of Commons to a vote
or resolution—a different expression being used to record
a similar vote in the House of Lords. (See also article by
Sir Ernest Clarke in The Secretary, Jan. 1917)

When a resolution has to be carried by a given majority,