Robert's Rules Of Order

• Publisher: QuickStudy Reference Guides
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781423237365
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Reuniones y presentaciones

Everything you need to know about parliamentary procedure in terms of organizing and running different types of meetings can be found in this comprehensive 3-panel guide. All of the guidelines featured in the original Robert's Rules of Order publication—from key definitions to step-by-step meeting procedures—are described in up-to-date detail through BarCharts' handy color-coded format.

Procedures for Conducting a Meeting

Major vocabulary terms for meetings:

• A meeting is an assembly of members in a single room to conduct business
• A session is a series of connected meetings for a single order of business or agenda
• A recess, taken in the middle of a meeting, is a short break having no effect on the business of the meeting, after which the meeting is resumed where it left off
• An adjournment ends a meeting
• An adjournment sine die ends a session or a series of meetings

The assembly and its bylaws decide how many meetings and sessions to hold and their frequency; when a meeting ends, the assembly should decide when and where to hold the next meeting Assemblies must finish any pending business before adjourning a session; the assembly in the following session is not tied to any business that was not discussed in the previous session

There are different types of meetings an assembly can hold:

• A regular meeting is a meeting held on the date and time specified in the bylaws to discuss any business that arises within the scope of the assembly
• A special meeting is a meeting that is not held at the regular time and date to deal with urgent business that cannot wait until the following regular meeting
• An adjourned meeting is one that continues the previous session or special meeting, taking up the business that was interrupted at the adjournment of the last meeting
• An annual meeting is a meeting held once each year, usually to give the various reports of officers and committees
• An executive session is a secret meeting for executive business
• A public session is the opposite of an executive session and must be open to the public, even if the public is not a member of the assembly

Starting a Meeting

To start a meeting, the chairperson of the meeting must call the meeting to order by taking his/her position (usually at the front of the room) and saying, “The meeting will come to order”; once the chairperson calls the meeting to order, the meeting can begin on the order of business; this order is usually:

1. Reading and approval of minutes
2. Reports of officers, boards, and committees
3. Reports of special committees, or committees appointed to exist for a specific task
4. Special orders, or business that has a special priority, such as committee reports left over from the previous meeting
5. Unfinished business and general orders, or business left over from the previous meeting
6. New business

Meeting business is usually handled with motions; to bring a motion before the assembly, the steps are:

1. The member must be recognized by the chairperson, usually by standing and waiting to be called upon
2. He/she then makes the motion by saying, “I move to…”
3. Another member seconds the motion, saying, “Seconded”
4. The chair repeats the motion; at this time, the motion is pending, or open to discussion

Motions usually made at the beginning of meetings are:

• Call for the orders of the day, in which the assembly adopts its agenda or order of business
• Fix the time to which to adjourn, where the assembly decides when the meeting will end and sets a time for the next meeting

Minutes

The minutes are the record of the meeting’s procedures and what was accomplished at the meeting; minutes generally include:

• The name of the assembly and the kind of meeting
• The date and time of the meeting
• Who was present at the meeting and who operated as the chairperson
• The approval of the previous meeting’s minutes, if needed
• All main motions, their topics, and who proffered them
• Whether the main motions were approved or denied and the number of votes for each side
• All secondary motions when needed for clarity or completeness
• All notices of motions
• All points of order and appeals and their dispositions
• When the meeting adjourned

Reports

Reports of officers are reports of an officer’s administrative duties; examples of these reports include:

• Reports of executive officers, which usually contain information or recommendations for actions
• Treasurer’s reports, which report on the financial state of the organization
• Reports of other officers, which are usually made annually and for informational purposes only

Reports of boards and committees are official statements formally adopted by the body as information for the assembly (e.g., a report of the committee for drafting the bylaws would include drafts of the bylaws); the reports must contain only information that has been legally agreed to in the board or committee meeting

Quorum

To hold a meeting and conduct business, there must be a quorum, or a certain number of members present, at the meeting; the number is usually a percentage of the total members and can be fixed by the assembly or by rules

If a quorum does not exist at a meeting, the meeting must immediately adjourn, as all business completed without a quorum would be illegal

Decorum in Debate

Once there is a quorum and the chair calls the meeting to order, members can be recognized for motions:

1. To obtain the floor, the member must stand and address the chairperson by saying, “Mr./ Madam Chairperson”
2. The chairperson recognizes the member by saying the member’s name
3. The member may then i...