''Mason's Manual of Legislative Procedure'', referred to as ''Mason's Manual'', is the official

parliamentary authority A parliamentary authority is a book of rules for conducting business (parliamentary procedure) in deliberative assemblies. Several different books have been used by legislative assemblies and by organizations' deliberative bodies. Application to ...

of most

state legislature A state legislature is a Legislature, legislative branch or body of a State (country subdivision), political subdivision in a Federalism, federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of ...

s in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The Manual covers motions, procedures, vote requirements, the

rules of order Parliamentary procedures are the accepted rules, ethics, and customs governing meetings of an assembly or organization. Their object is to allow orderly deliberation upon questions of interest to the organization and thus to arrive at the sense ...

, principles, precedents, and legal basis behind parliamentary law used by legislatures. The author, Paul Mason (1898–1985), was a scholar who worked for the

California State Senate The California State Senate is the upper house of the California State Legislature (the lower house being the California State Assembly). The state senate convenes, along with the state assembly, at the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ...

. He is best known for writing ''Constitutional History of California'' in 1951 and ''Manual of Legislative Procedure'' in 1935. The

National Conference of State Legislatures The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), established in 1975, is a "nonpartisan public officials' association composed of sitting state legislators" from the states, territories and commonwealths of the United States. Background ...

(NCSL) was assigned copyright ownership by Mason prior to his death. The NCSL assigned the American Society of Legislative Clerks and Secretaries (ASLCS) the task of editing and maintaining the manual for future printings. In 1984, the ASLCS created the Mason's Manual Revision Commission consisting of ASLCS members. It is responsible for editing and revising the manual to keep pace with the modern challenges and developments in parliamentary procedures. The most recent edition is the 2020 edition.

References

External links

1979 Edition
–

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{Parliamentary Procedure Parliamentary procedure Parliamentary authority