Transcript What “Robert’s Rules” Can Do for Your Meetings

Federally Employed Women
DFC Chapter
Tips on Running Effective Meetings
What “Robert’s Rules” Can Do for Your Meetings
September 13, 2006
Meeting? What Meeting?
Do We Need to Meet?
Agenda, What’s That?
When was the last time you participated
in a meeting where there was no
organization, no facilitator, or an agenda?
Tips for Running
Effective Meetings
3
Why Meetings Are Important
 When three or more people work together face to face this
is called this a meeting
 Governments, businesses, schools, clubs, families ---are all
built up from groups of men, women, and children
 We are a meeting society—a world made of small groups
that come together to share information, plan, solve
problems, criticize or praise, make new decisions or find
out what went wrong with old ones
4
Why Meetings Are Important
 The more successful you become in your organization,
the more time you spend in meetings
 Middle management spends 35 percent of their time in
meetings; top management increases to 50 percent;
bottom line you spend over half of your organizational
life in meetings
 Most organizations spend 7 to 15 percent of their
personnel budgets on meetings; this does not include
time spent preparing for meetings
5
Why Have Meetings At All
 Your time is your most valuable resource so you want to
spend it wisely
 Most organizations can’t function without meetings because
they must communicate in groups to get things done
 A meeting is a tool and is often the best way to
communicate information to others in a group when faceto-face interaction is necessary
 Meetings are a way of involving others in solving problems
and making decisions to ensure support and buy-in
6
Types of Meetings
There are four types of meetings:





Problem Solving
Decision-Making
Planning
Reporting and Presenting
Evaluating
7
When to Have a Meeting
Calling a meeting may be good when:
 You want information or advice from your group;
 You want to involve your group in solving a problem or making a
decision;
 There is an issue that needs to be clarified;
 You have concerns you want to share with your group as a whole;
 The group itself wants a meeting;
 There is problem that involves people from different groups; or
 There is a problem and it’s not clear what it is or who is responsible
for dealing with it
8
When Not to Have a Meeting
A meeting is generally not a good idea when:
 You have to deal personnel issues like hiring, firing and negotiating
salaries;
 There is inadequate data or poor preparation;
 Something could be communicated better by telephone, memo, or a
one-to-one discussion;
 The subject matter is so confidential or secret that it can’t be shared
with some group members; or
 The subject is trivial; or there is anger and hostility in the group and
people need time to calm down before they begin to work
collaboratively
9
When Does a Meeting Work
 How do you know if a meeting works? What’s an effective
meeting?
 There are two ways of judging the success of a meeting.
What are they?
10
Do You Have an Agenda?

Always prepare an agenda

An agenda is a predetermined sequence of
items of business to be
covered at a specific
meeting

Get members involved in
agenda preparation and you
will soon find that members
are taking ownership of the
agenda and the meeting
11
More on Agendas
 Prepare the agenda in advance
Parliamentary Pearls
E-mail can be a very effective tool in agenda preparation. For
example, if you are going to prepare the agenda next weekend,
e-mail members during the early part of the week and ask them to
e-mail agenda items to you by Friday
 Follow the agenda conscientiously. If you don’t
follow it, you can’t expect members to follow it.
And, if the group decides not to follow the agenda,
do it in an orderly fashion – suspend the rules
12
More on Agendas
 Create a “Template” that can be used and
revised accordingly
 Include on the agenda





Name of the Group
Title and/or Topic of the Meeting
Date, Place and Time
Agenda Items
Designate a time when an agenda item will be
discussed (optional)
13
Why Do You Need a Facilitator
 Brings organization, structure, and order to a
meeting
 Helps develop ground rules (unless using Roberts
Rules) for the group to follow
 Gets consensus on ground rules and enforces them
 Keeps time so the meeting begins and ends on time
 Record actions and gets clarity of what, who, when
on actions
 Must stay neutral
14
Do You Have a Minute(s)?
 Minutes not hours – make
them short, sweet and to
the point
 When the minutes are
printed and distributed in
advance of the meeting,
there is no need to have
 The Secretary prepares the
the minutes read during
minutes immediately after
the meeting and the
the meeting and sends
them out to the members –
members can quickly
either by e-mail or regular
move to approve them
mail – before the next
meeting.
15
Do You Have a Minute(s)?
 Approval of the minutes can
be simple: The presiding
officer says “You have
received the minutes of the
last meeting. Are there any
corrections to the minutes?
[Pause]. Hearing none, if
there are no objections, the
minutes are approved as
printed
Gavel Gaffs
You might have heard presiding
officers ask “Are there any
additions or corrections to the
minutes as printed?” It is not
necessary to ask for addition as
well as corrections because an
addition is a correction.
16
Parliamentary Procedure
 Organizations using parliamentary procedure usually follow a fixed
order of business, such as:
 Call to Order
 Roll call of members present to determine quorum
 Reading of last meeting minutes
 Officers Reports
 Committee Reports
 Special Orders—important business previously designated
for consideration at this meeting
 Unfinished business
 New business
 Announcements
 Adjournment
17
Roberts Rules 101
18
History of Robert’s Rules
 Henry M. Robert (1837-1923) was a
general in the U.S. Army and began
researching the subject of parliamentary
procedure after he was elected to chair a
group but found limited technical books
available.
 “Robert’s Rules” refer to a lot of different
books
 First edition released in 1876, titled,
“Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for
Deliberative Assemblies”
 Nine subsequent editions followed, many
with substantial revisions. The Tenth
Edition was released in 2000.
19
Robert’s Rules 101
Parliamentary Procedure is a
system of conducting
business…
 Allows a group of people to
come together and make a
decision
 Comprised of basic
principles & rules that
determine how the group
will proceed through the
decision-making process
Parliamentary Pearls
You can find the parliamentary
authority for your organization
in your by-laws. If the by-laws
are written following the
format prescribed in
“Robert’s” you will find an
article titled “Parliamentary
Authority” That article should
be one of the last articles in the
by-laws. (See page 11 of the
DFC FEW Chapter By-laws)
20
Robert’s Rules 101
 Helps the group stay
focused on a single issue
until the members
resolve it
 Manages your meeting
by giving it structure
 Shortens meeting when
tools are used properly
Gavel Gaffs
Just saying you are following
parliamentary procedure
doesn’t shorten the meeting.
It is the discipline of
following the procedures that
makes the meetings shorter.
21
Robert’s Rules 101
 Robert’s is all about protecting the rights of the minority,
ensuring legality, and expediting business
 Various meetings serve different parliamentary purposes, all
of them, however, should follow parliamentary procedure
 It is essential to establish a quorum before any meaningful
business is conducted
22
Robert’s Rules 101
 A quorum, as defined in the DFC-FEW bylaws, is the
majority of the Executive Committee
 The level of formality that you use at your meeting
depends on how many people are involved, the purpose of
the meeting, and how much time and money is available
 Robert’s provides for less stringent rules for meetings with
12 or fewer members
23
Robert’s Rules 101
Points to Ponder…
 One of the reasons that
some people don’t like
parliamentary procedure is
that they think it must be
all or nothing --- they
believe that you have to
use all of it or you should
ignore it completely.
 Robert’s Rules can be
adapted to meet the needs
of the group
24
Making Motions
 Members express themselves in the form of motions.
 A motion is a proposal that the entire membership take
action or take a stand on an issue. Individual members can:
 Make a motion
 Second a motion(s)
 Debate motions
 Vote on motions
 Call a point of order
25
Four Basic Types of Motions
1.
Main Motions: The purpose of a main motion is to
introduce items to the membership for their consideration.
They cannot be made when any other motion is on the
floor, and yield to privileged, subsidiary, and incidental
motions.
2.
Subsidiary Motions: Their purpose is to either amend a
main motion or affect how a main motion is handled. They
are voted on before a main motion.
26
Four Basic Types of Motions
3.
Privileged Motions: Their purpose is to bring up items
that are urgent about special or important matters unrelated
to pending business.
4.
Incidental Motions: Their purpose is to provide a means
of questioning procedure concerning other motions. They
must be considered before the other motion(s).
27
How to Present a Motion
 Obtain the floor by
waiting until the current
speaker has finished
 Rise or raise your hand to
address the Chair, and
wait to be recognized
 Speak clearly and
concisely
 Always state a motion
affirmatively. Say “I
move that we….” rather
than, “I move that we do
not…”
 Wait for someone to
second your motion
 Another member will
second your motion or the
Chair will call for a
second.
28
How to Present a Motion - Continued
 If there is no second to your
motion, it is lost.
 If your motion is seconded, the
Chair will say, “it has been
moved and seconded that
we…”, thus placing your
motion before the membership
for consideration and action
 The membership either debates
your motion or may move
directly to a vote
 Once your motion is presented
to the membership by the Chair,
it becomes assembly property
and it cannot be changed by
you without the consent of the
members
29
Expanding Motions
 The time for you to speak in favor of your motion
is during the debate of the motion, rather than
when you present it
 The mover is always allowed to speak first
 All comments and debate must be directed to the
Chair
30
More on Motions
Putting the question to the Membership…
 Keep to the pre-determined time limit for speaking, if a
limit as been set
 The mover may speak again only after other speakers are
finished, unless called upon by the Chair
 The Chair asks the membership, “Are you ready to vote on
the question?” If there is no more discussion, a vote is
taken
31
Voting
 Five voting methods used by organizations are:
 By Voice: The chair asked those in favor to say “aye”, those
opposed to say “no”. Any member may move for an exact
count.
 By Roll Call: Each member answers “yes” or “no” as her name
is called. This method is used when its required to record each
person’s vote.
 By General Consent: When a motion is not likely to be
opposed, the Chair says, “if there is no objection…” The
membership shows their agreement by their silence, however if
one member says,, “I object,” the items must be put to a vote.
32
Voting Continued
 By Division: This is a slight variation of a voice vote. It
does not require a count unless the Chair so desires.
Members raise their hands or stand.
 By Ballot: Members write their vote on a slip of paper.
This method is used when secrecy is desired.
33
Use Rules Properly
Parliamentary Procedure is the best way to get things done at
meetings. But, it will only work if used properly.
 Allow motions that are in order
 Have members obtain the floor properly
 Speak clearly and concisely
 Obey the rules of debate
 BE COURTEOUS!!
34
Sources
“The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Robert’s
Rules” by Nancy Sylvester
“The New Interaction Method – How To
Make Meetings Work” by Michael Doyle
and David Straus
35
Next Meeting
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
League of Women Voters
Understanding the Upcoming Ballot Issues
36