From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The National Association of Parliamentarians
(NAP), is the largest non-profit association of professional parliamentarians in the
world.
NAP was organized in 1930. As of June 2008, NAP had a membership
of about 3,560 parliamentarians in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, and
internationally. This included 317 who have been certified as
Professional Registered Parliamentarians, the highest level of
proficiency.
The goals of NAP are:
- Foster educational, scientific, literary and professional
purposes of studying, teaching, promoting and disseminating the
philosophy and principles underlying the rules of deliberative
assemblies;
- Further the growing interest in parliamentary rules in both
public and private schools on all levels;
- Create closer cooperation among parliamentarians;
- Inculcate and uphold the general principles of obedience to law
and lend moral aid and strength to the parliamentary activities of
its members; and
- Award such certification of proficiency as appropriate.
In contrast to the American Institute
of Parliamentarians, NAP focuses virtually exclusively on Robert's Rules of Order, rather
than a variety of parliamentary
authorities.
Levels
- Provisional member- available to any person interested in
parliamentary procedure. Provisional members are not considered
full voting members of NAP.
- Regular NAP member - must pass a membership examination to
become a full member. This test is 100 questions on parliamentary
procedure, taken from a pool of 300. This pool is available for
free from the group's website.
- Registered Parliamentarian (RP) - must pass a further
examination on Robert's Rules of Order. This test consists of 5
parts. The first part is a timed test to find the page numbers for
5 statements in Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised. The
next four parts contain a total of 300 questions from a pool of
1,200 questions. The questions may be purchased from NAP as a study
guide.
- Professional Registered Parliamentarian (PRP) - are RPs who
have completed a Professional Qualification Course. PRPs that do
not take (or teach) an additional Professional Development Course
once during a six year period, or fail to earn a required number of
service points during that time in categories such as service as a
parliamentarian, teaching, or publishing, revert to RP status.
- PRPs and RPs who decide to no longer practice may apply for
retired status, and retain the title "retired PRP" (RPRP) and
"retired RP," (RRP) respectively.
- There are separate categories for clubs (CLB), student groups
(SG), student members (SM), student registered parliamentarians
(SR), and student professional registered parliamentarians
(SPR).
Publications
- National Parliamentarian- quarterly publication of
NAP, including articles on parliamentary procedure and
news/information on NAP.
NAP publishes a variety of other works on parliamentary
procedure. These include Pointers on Parliamentary
Procedure, the Pathways to Proficiency series, the
Spotlight series, and more.
See also
External
links
Wikis
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