The Records a Woman Meets on Her First Day in Office

The standing orders

The standing orders are the rules of the chamber. Every state House of Assembly and both chambers of the National Assembly publish their own standing orders. The document sets out how a member speaks, how long a member may speak, how a bill is introduced, how a motion is moved, and how a vote is taken. A new member reads the standing orders first because every other action in the chamber depends on the rules the document sets. The clerk of the chamber holds the current edition. The new member asks the clerk for a copy on the first day.

The register of members

The register of members lists each elected member, the party the member belongs to, and the constituency the member represents. The clerk updates the register at the first sitting of the chamber after an election. A new member writes her name in the register in her own hand and signs it. The signature is the record of her acceptance of the seat. The register is also the list the clerk uses to call members in the order of their constituencies.

The appropriation law

The appropriation law is the law the chamber passed to authorise spending for the year. The document names each office in the state or the federation and sets a sum for that office. A new member reads three sections of the appropriation law. First, the section that names her own office and its budget. Second, the section that names the ministries and agencies in her state or the federation. Third, the section that names the money set aside for capital projects, because capital projects are the part of the budget a member follows most closely in her constituency.

The committee schedule

The committee schedule lists each standing committee of the chamber, the members of each committee, and the dates on which each committee meets. A new member is assigned to at least three committees and at most seven. The committees that touch her constituency most directly — education, health, water resources, works — are the ones she asks the chamber to assign her to. The schedule is kept by the clerk. The new member asks the clerk for the schedule on the first day and writes down the date and time of each committee she is assigned to.

Four orders of reading

The four records serve different purposes and are read in a different order on the first day. The standing orders are read first, because they set the rules for everything that follows. The register is signed second, because it is the act of accepting the seat. The appropriation law is read third, because it names the money the chamber has already approved and on which the chamber will vote for the rest of the year. The committee schedule is read fourth, because the committees meet on the date the schedule sets and not before.

What WATAG does with these records

WATAG trains women in elected office to read the standing orders, the register, and the appropriation law before the first sitting of the chamber. The training uses the actual documents the chamber publishes. A participant practises reading the appropriation law and naming three offices in her state that hold money for health, for water, and for education. She also practises reading a committee schedule and naming the first three meetings she will attend. The training is a WATAG programme activity. It does not produce a candidate, does not run a campaign, and does not assess any public office.