After reading Robert’s Rules of Order, if you have experience with using Robert’s Rules and/or attending meetings following these procedures, describe how it works. Why would Robert’s be used? In what type of meeting? Not all meetings would need to follow Roberts.
https://www.dummies.com/article/business-careers-money/business/general-business/conducting-effective-business-meetings-199501/.
Robert’s Rules of Order
Have you ever been to a meeting that was going nowhere, everyone was off track? You leave feeling frustrated thinking of the time wasted and that nothing was accomplished. For groups/committees that seem to spin their wheels, Robert’s Rules of Order would be beneficial to them.
What is Robert’s Rules of Order? Robert’s rules were originally derived from practices in the English Parliament. Henry Matryn Robert (1837–1923), a distinguished engineer who retired from the U.S. Army as a brigadier general, had considerable influence on the development of Robert’s Rules .He first published his Robert’s Rules of Order in 1876. The original book was 176 pages. Over the years with edits and editions, the book Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR) now contains 643 pages. Parliamentary procedure as it exists in America today gradually evolved somewhat differently.
Below is a condensed version of how to use Robert’s Rules of Order.
A. Roles
a. What happens at a meeting? To keep order, one person is chosen to preside over the meeting. This person enforces the rules and designates who is to speak at any given time. They can be elected as you meet or one time for all future meetings.
B. Quorum
a. In most organizations that have regular meetings, many members are often absent. The organization should not be bound by decisions taken by an unrepresentatively small number of members who might attend a meeting. To prevent this, a quorum, a minimum number of members who must be present, is required for a meeting to conduct substantive business. Usually this is majority, which equates to more than half of the membership.
b. When the quorum is not present usually this limits groups of doing anything productive at a meeting. Even when a meeting begins with quorum, the meeting loses its ability to conduct substantive business whenever enough members leave to bring attendance below quorum. It can resume if enough members return.
C. Standard Order of Business
a. Reading and Approval of Minutes – The chair says, “The Secretary will read the minutes.” When the secretary has read them, the chair says, “Are there any corrections to the minutes?” Normally, corrections are made without objection, but if there is a dispute there can be debate and vote on the proposed correction. Thereafter, the chair says “If there are no [further] corrections, the minutes are approved.”
b. Reports – The assembly then hears reports from officers, boards, and committees of the organization. More than likely the reports are just giving information which may include recommendations. The recommendations are then debated upon and voted as a group, as long as there is quorum.
c. Unfinished Business – Business that is carried over from the previous meeting. In a properly conducted meeting there is no type or class of business called “old business.” It is a common mistake for the chair to call for “old business” and under that incorrect category to allow members to bring up again matters that were considered at earlier meetings or matters for which there was merely an informal suggestion that they should be brought up at the present meeting.
d. New Business – The chair asks, “Is there any new business?” New items may then be brought up by any member, using the procedure – making a motion.
D. Agenda
a. Instead of following a standard order of business, a group may adopt an agenda. An Agenda sets out the order in which specific items are to be considered, and sometimes sets exact times for their consideration.
E. Adjournments, Recess and Standing at Ease
a. When the meeting has completed its work, the chair says, Is there any further business? Since there is no further business, the meeting is adjourned.” To adjourn means to close the meeting.
