ARTICLE 27

EFFECTIVE DATES

This Constitution is effective from Saturday, 28th April, 2001, at the conclusion of the Annual Delegates' Meeting held at Oba Akenzua II Cultural Centre, Benin-City, Edo State, Nigeria, where it was unanimously adopted by the delegates present.
FIRST SCHEDULE OF THE NMA CONSTITUTION NMA STANDING ORDERS
Intended to provide for the conduct and procedure of all meetings and plenary sessions of the Association and matters relating thereto, and shall be read together with the Constitution.
1. BUSINESS
The President of the Association shall occupy the chair and preside at all meetings of the Association. Subject to the provisions of the Association's Constitution, at any meeting of the Association where the president is absent:
1st Vice-President
or 2nd Vice-President
or Secretary-General
or Deputy Secretary-General
or Treasurer
or Editor of the Nigerian Medical Journal
provided the order of precedence shall be in descending order or arrangement as stated above shall occupy the chair and failing which members present will elect a Chairman among themselves.
2. A Delegates' or Executive Council or any meeting shall transact such business as on its agenda or any business decided by the Executive Council or the Chairman.
3. The Agenda of the business of the meeting shall be circulated with the notice of meeting. At the beginning of the meeting the agenda shall be reviewed and adopted and once adopted shall be adhered to till the completion of business.
4. No member shall commence to speak on any topic until recognized to do so by the Chairman.
5. Any member desiring to speak shall put up his hand, sitting in his place and shall not rise or speak until he is called upon by the Chairman.
6. The order of speaking shall be determined by the Chairman in his absolute discretion without fear or favour.
7. No two members shall stand up or speak simultaneously during discussions at meetings.
8. No member shall speak more than once on any topic except the mover of a motion or amendment, who shall be permitted to wind up after the subject of such motion or amendment has been debated, provided that a member who has spoken on a subject may again be heard at the discretion of the Chairman to offer explanation on some material part of his speech which has been misunderstood. The provisions of this section shall not apply to meetings of the Executive Council.
9. A member must confine his observations to the subject under discussion and may not introduce any irrelevant matter thereby.
10. No member shall be permitted to re-open any specific question upon which the meeting has come to a conclusion.
11. Any meeting of the Association held in parts shall be regarded as one continuous meeting.
The provisions of the Standing Orders as in this schedule of the Constitution shall apply as in any one continuous meeting.
No member shall be permitted to re-open any specific question upon which the meeting has come to a conclusion in any of the earlier part(s).
12. No member shall use offensive, insulting or dis- orderly language about any other member of the Association, or impute improper motives to such member.
13. Any member whose conduct is disorderly at any meeting or who refuses to withdraw an offensive or insulting language after he has been told by the Chairman to do so may be asked to leave the meeting by the Chairman.
14. The Chairman shall use his discretion to stop discussion when there are many members anxious to speak on a subject, in due fairness, when he considers that further discussion will be provocative, irrelevant or dilatory to the matter.
15. A member who has any relevant and pertinent information to give, may in the course of a speech by another person plead with the Chairman but such a pleader shall only give his information if permitted to do so by the Chairman.
16. A member may raise a plea of "point of order" which when raised shall only be allowed where a member observes, and the Chairman accepts, that there is a deviation by the speaker from the subject matter and/or according to these Standing Orders.
17. A member may raise the plea "on point of correction" where there has arisen a misquotation of or by a speaker, or a misrepresentation of or by either a speaker or the matter under discussion.
18. Misquotation or misrepresentation shall be corrected firstly by the person misquoted and finally by the Chairman.
19. In the event of a proposition to proceed to the next business or for progress being moved and seconded, unless it shall appear to the Chairman that such motion is premature, it shall, after the proposer and seconder of the resolution have been heard, be put to vote. If agreed to, all other propositions on the subject under discussion shall be considered as disposed of.
Once a subject has been discussed and voted upon it shall not again be introduced during the meeting in accordance with clause 10 of these Standing Orders.
20. No member shall leave any meeting except with the permission of the Chairman.
21. No motion or amendment shall be discussed unless it is seconded, except the proposals of the Executive Council or the report of any committee of the Association which shall be taken as having been moved and seconded. No second amendment or rider shall be voted upon until the first amendment is disposed of.
22. On any issue, cause or matter, every member eligible to vote according to the Association's Constitution shall have one vote at a time but the Chairman shall have a second or casting vote in the event of equality of votes, provided that if at an election, there is equality of votes, the presiding Electoral Officer shall have a casting vote.
23. Unless this Constitution otherwise prescribes, voting on any subject at all meetings of the Association shall be by show of hands. METHODS OF VOTING MAY HOWEVER BE VARIED BY TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY OF THOSE PRESENT AT THE MEETING.
24. The ruling of the Chairman on all these matters shall be obeyed.
25. The full meeting shall have power to appoint Committees/Commissions for the furtherance of its business. Such committees may sit during the hours of the meeting when necessary.
26. The Chairman may give directions or adopt measures reasonably necessary in the interest of the Association or reasonably conducive to the conduct or proceedings of any meeting. The procedure at a meeting of any committee may be determined by that committee. It may appoint its Chairman, Secretary or co-opt any other member(s) unless otherwise prescribed by the Constitution.
27. ELECTION
Only qualified voters shall be admitted into the meeting place during election time, unless otherwise stated in this Constitution. 28. The Returning Officer shall appoint two other officers to assist him.
29. FUNCTIONS OF THE RETURNING AND ELECTORAL OFFICERS
The Returning Officer and the two other electoral officers shall control, conduct and manage the Association's election for which they are appointed during the election. The Returning Officer shall be the presiding electoral officer and shall have the powers of the Chairman under these Standing Orders.
30. DECISION
To the extent of their functions, the decision of the Returning Officer and the two other ad-hoc electoral officers shall be final.
31. PROCEEDINGS
Provided that a quorum was formed, validity of proceedings of any meeting shall not be affected by any office vacancy or by defect in the appointment or election of members or officers or by any irregularity in the proceedings.
32. DISCIPLINE
Any member of the Association may be expelled from a meeting or have any other disciplinary action taken against him for such reasons as the Executive Council or the Delegates' or General Meeting may deem fit in accordance with the provisions of the Association's Constitution.
33. SMOKING
Tobacco shall neither be smoked nor used at all meetings of the Association.
34. CONFLICT
For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Constitution shall prevail and have precedence over those of the Standing Orders and Bye Laws where there is a conflict or for any other cause.
35. The Chairman of a Committee, Task Force, the National Disciplinary Committee or any other body set up by the Association shall have the powers of the Chairman under these Standing Orders.
36. In any meeting of the Association, any co-opted member or observer or ex-officio member shall have no right to vote unless otherwise stated in this Constitution.
37. These Standing Orders may be repealed or amended in part or through the process outlined below, but under no circumstances may these Standing Orders or any part thereof be suspended.
38. AMENDMENT
Notice of amendment to the Standing Orders shall be sent in writing not later than seven months before an ADM through the Secretary-General to all members.
The amendment shall be adopted by 2/3 of Delegates at the ADM provided 2/3 shall be approximated to the nearest higher whole number, Voting shall be as in 10(2) provided any decision shall not be taken by acclamation or consensus in this instance. Quorum for Amendment shall be as in 8(8).
39. Any amendment to the Standing Orders shall come into effect immediately after the conclusion of the ADM where such amendment was passed.
40. EFFECTIVE DATE
These Standing Orders are effective from Saturday, 28th April, 2001, at the conclusion of the Annual Delegates' Meeting held at Oba Akenzua II Cultural Centre, Benin-City, Edo State, where they were unanimously adopted by the delegates present.