Parliamentary procedure

Four years of preparation, countless hours of practice, and one national stage to prove their skills.

North Miami FFA students are putting their leadership, public speaking, and parliamentary procedure skills to the test against the nation's best at the 99th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis.

CJ Miller is there and reports.

Yeah, it's definitely a lot of preparation that goes into this, and most of us have been doing it for our full four years of high school.

So it's really not just this year, but we've been practicing for this for pretty much four years.

That's Hannah Early with North Miami FFA.

The Parliamentary Procedure Leadership Development Event challenges students to think on their feet, lead organized business meetings, and master Robert's Rules of Order, skills that can open doors far beyond agriculture.

Carter Flohr, who's also a member of the North Miami FFA team, says those lessons can translate directly into careers, public service, and life beyond high school.

When I get up there, there's going to be adult supervision, okay? And they're going to try to shut me down, and it's not going to be good for them if they try that.

Look, I understand Mason's Rules of Order probably better than anybody in the legislature.

You know, this isn't Robert's Rules of Order, it's Mason's Rules of Order.

They can either let everybody have hearings and we can discuss these issues, or I can tie everything up.

All right, but explain to me how you get more cops through the legislature rather than...

There's been some, there have been some meetings where I, the process was ...

Uh, you know, learning a process, lear- learning Rosenberg's Rules of Order.

Instead of Robert's Rules, we use Rosenberg's Rules.

Right, right, Rosenberg.

A fundamental law can be made, altered, interpreted, or repealed only on the representation of the Emperor and Grand Duke and with the consent of the estates.

The chief fundamental laws which, since the Union, have been passed in Finland and for Finland are the Law of the Diet of 1869, of which a clause has just been cited and which fixes legislative procedure, fourteen paragraphs of the Military Service Law of 1878, which are specially declared therein to be fundamental, certain franchise laws of 1879, and the Law of 1886 granting to the Diet the right to initiate legislation.

In ordinary matters of civil law, Finland is subject to the common law of Sweden, which may be cited much as the English common law is cited in American states, and, above all, to the general law of 1734, so far as the civil side of that code is concerned.

In criminal matters, the Finnish Penal Code of 1894 is, of course, decisive.