Robert's Rules of Order in Action: How to Participate in Meetings with Confidence

CHAPTER ONE

STRUCTURE

Why We Use Robert’s Rules of Order

Whenever people come together in a group to determine a course of action, the members of the group need to discuss the options before them and reach a decision. Not surprisingly, group members rarely find themselves in unanimous agreement about the action to be taken, so they need a way to resolve their differences and move forward, usually by taking some sort of VOTE. Such a group is known as a deliberative ASSEMBLY. (Throughout this book, the first time we use a term that’s defined in the book’s glossary (here), you’ll see the term in bold type and hyperlinked.)

If you’ve ever had the misfortune of attending a meeting that went wrong, then you don’t need to have the reasons for using Robert’s Rules of Order explained to you. Perhaps the meeting’s leader had trouble keeping the discussion on track, or the participants kept interrupting one another. Maybe one small faction got hung up on some detail and refused to allow the leader to move through the official AGENDA. You may have become frustrated by people talking out of turn, changing the subject, or starting arguments. All in all, it became impossible for the group to accomplish anything.

A deliberative assembly can be as small as a gathering of three people or as large as the US Congress. In any assembly, Robert’s Rules of Order can be relied on to establish a baseline of decorum, as well as a process for bringing issues to the FLOOR, holding debate, and coming to a vote. Robert’s Rules set out not only the basic principles involved in holding and running a productive meeting, but also the procedures that allow group members to make decisions and move forward. These principles and procedures let every member of the group be heard, propose ideas, and have his or her ideas and input treated fairly and respectfully. They also establish procedures for selecting leaders, determining the size of a MAJORITY, and protecting the rights of the minority.

Some organizational leaders may fear that using parliamentary procedure to run meetings will look pretentious, or they may believe that a small meeting doesn’t require this level of formality. If there are only a few people in a group, using formal rules may seem like a waste of time at first, since it seems reasonable to expect conversation to be more than enough for people to make intelligent decisions.

Even in a small group, however, ground rules allow meetings to be more productive, and they keep the members on track as they go through their decision-making process. The members of a group need to be able to trust that someone is in charge, that a vote will eventually be taken when a MOTION is proposed, that the vote will be conducted fairly, that its results will be tallied accurately, and that there are rules determining what the group will do next. And as a group becomes larger—as it grows from, say, three or four people to eight or ten—structure becomes even more important. No group or organization, whether a family or a village council, is too small to use Robert’s Rules of Order, and no group decision is so unimportant that it should be made without an orderly vote by its members.

In the pages that follow, you will learn how to become an active and helpful participant in a properly run meeting. Using Robert’s Rules, you will discover the proper way to make a proposal, engage in debate, call for and conduct a vote, prepare and make a REPORT, make changes to an established decision, and perform the other tasks, large and small, on which orderly meetings depend. Whether you sit on a national nonprofit’s board of directors or belong to a local homeowners’ or condominium association, you’ll learn how to conduct yourself in a manner that allows decisions to be made and plans to be carried out—and people will thank you for your efforts.

ORIGINS AND USES OF ROBERT’S RULES

Brigadier General Henry Martyn Robert III, the creator of Robert’s Rules, based them on PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE, the methods for running a meeting used by the British Parliament, which in turn were derived from the system that was used by the assembly in ancient Greece. In 1876, when General Robert wrote the first edition of his book, he could not have imagined a world where meetings and votes are conducted with participants scattered all over the globe. But many organizations now operate this way, especially professional associations and corporations whose shareholders live thousands of miles from where meetings take place.

Although a far-flung modern assembly can modify Robert’s Rules to fit the realities of doing business in the twenty-first century, the rules remain timeless in their ability to help people from different backgrounds, geographical regions, cultures, and levels of experience become productive contributors to group decision-making processes anywhere in the world. That’s because virtually anyone, even a total novice, can understand Robert’s Rules and put them to good use. Parliamentary procedure may seem austere and mysterious, but Robert’s Rules make it simpler than people generally imagine. Any democratically run group or organization that adopts Robert’s Rules of Order will find that the rules serve just as well in times of harmony as they do in times of conflict.

We’ve already discussed some of the kinds of groups, organizations, and gatherings that make Robert’s Rules the basis of their meetings. These include boards of directors in the public and private sectors, as well as corporate shareholders, members of homeowners’ and condo associations, professional associations, and groups of family members. Here are some other examples:

Assemblies and committees at all levels of government

Groups of tribal leaders

Members of labor unions

Residents of retirement communities

Social clubs

Garden clubs and other hobby-oriented organizations

Cast and crew members of theatrical productions

Business coworkers

Fraternities and sororities

Adult fraternal and service organizations

Student-interest organizations

Groups of school and university classmates and alumni

Parent-teacher associations

Employee associations

Religious groups

Award-making committees

Children’s community organizations

Just like modern multinational corporations and professional associations, other types of organizations may modify Robert’s Rules of Order after adopting the rules as a foundation. A homeowners’ association, for example, may have its own governing document that covers the specific rules for the association and its methods of interacting with residents. Such a document usually includes regulations, BYLAWS, and restrictions on what residents can do on and with their own property. In addition, the association’s voting process may differ significantly from the one in Robert’s Rules in that the right to vote may be given, not to the individual