INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

IS IT BETTER TO WIN ..... OR IS IT HOW YOU PLAY THE GAME?

How many times has someone said to you, “It’s not whether you win or losethat counts, but how you play the game!”

Does it make you feel any better when that is said? I doubt it. Butlet’s take a look at this saying when it comes to parliamentary competitions.

Let me ask you some questions.

Did you form a competition team JUST to win -- to rack up more points and ribbons for yourself and your school?
Or did you form a team to learn more about parliamentary procedure and to have better meetings?

If your answer is #1, I hope through this column and looking at other areas ofour WEB Site you will ultimately change your answer to question #2. And if #2 isyour answer, then it does matter how you play the game in competition contests rather thanwhether you win or lose.

Did you know that three-quarters of the professional parliamentarians are over 65 yearsof age? And very few are under fifty!!! There is a great need for youngpeople to learn the principles of democracy in small organizations, and to bring theseconcepts to government and business meetings. Competition teams are one of the veryfew places that high school students or college students are learning theseprinciples. And YOU are needed to help preserve democracy in the 21st century.

Who knows, you could be called to Russia, or Africa, or Latin America, --- perhapsChina to help them with these concepts. So it is important to learn the principlesas well as the rules.

This part of our page is for young people wanting to learn and improve their skills inmaking motions, conducting meetings and writing minutes. It is also for teachers andadvisors of competition teams to give ideas in how to teach this subject.

You will find articles written for both students and teachers. There is a sectioncalled “Correct Parliamentary Terminology”, and a “Question and AnswerSection”. If you want to post something on the page that will help others juste-mail us at drvideo@netdirect.net. or hit the link drvideo@comcast.netand we will receive your message and post it on the page.

You have our permission to print anything on this page and share it withothers as long as you give us credit. QUOTABLE QUOTES

“Success is to be measured not so muchby the position that one as reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcomewhile trying to succeed.”
Booker T. Washington, UP FROM SLAVERY, 1901

“Eighty percent of success is showingup”.
Woody Allen

“Hitch your wagon to a star.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CIVILIZATION, IN SOCIETY & SOLITUDE, 1870

“Once we find the fruits of success, the taste is nothing like what we had anticipated.”
William Inge, 1990

These quotes were taken from a book entitled, AMERICAN HERTIGATE, DICTIONARY OFAMERICAN QUOTATIONS, Selected and Annotated by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson.2

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