Your Rights in Debate

You actually have a lot of rights in debate. First, and foremost, if you are a member, you have the right to participate in debate without hindrance. If you are speaking, you have the right to say what you have to say without interference from others subject to the rules of Decorum. Nobody has the right to shout you down. Nobody has the right to interject into your talking time. Nobody has a right to comment while you are talking. All of these are subject to the legitimate right of the chair to come in when an issue arises.

You also have the right to take many sides of an argument (limited to the affirmative side for the mover of the motion). What you say in debate cannot be held either for or against you in the future.

You have the right to timeness -- a point of order about your comments must be made at the time they are said and not a month, a year, a decade later. This is an important reason why minutes contain what was done and not what was said. You can debate in favor of one opinion and then come back, appropriately, later and take the other side. Neither should be held against you -- it is debate which is the presenting of arguments.

Debate should be informative and constructive for you; not destructive.