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Article / Updated 11-24-2021
To save you time and unnecessary work, Robert’s Rules spells out exactly what needs to go into your minutes. Minutes are important because they’re the only surviving record of what was said and done at a meeting. They can be dry and boring. In fact, it’s probably a good sign if they are! Most importantly, they need to be informative and easy to navigate for whatever the reader needs to know six months from now.
Article / Updated 10-07-2021
According to Robert's Rules, minutes drafted ahead of time aren’t the official minutes until the members approve them. Today's technology has made its mark on meeting minutes. The secretary can now draft the minutes and easily send copies to the members for them to read before the meeting; then members can come to the meeting prepared with any corrections.
Article / Updated 08-10-2016
Your bylaws belong to your group, and only your group can decide what they mean. Sure, a parliamentarian can help you understand the technical meaning of a phrase or a section here and there. But when you come across something ambiguous (meaning that there's more than one way to reasonably interpret something), then the question remains to be answered by your organization by a majority vote at a meeting.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The motion to Reconsider is a distinct parliamentary motion! When you use the word reconsider in a parliamentary situation, it refers only to this specific motion. All the motions in the class of motions that bring a question again before the assembly assist your group in revisiting previously considered motions.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Some types of meeting are better suited to a not-so-strict enforcement of Robert's Rules of Order. If your group needs to consider an issue that calls for a more freewheeling discussion than close attendance to Robert's Rules allows or you're part of a committee or small board with fewer than a dozen members, some aspects of formality can actually slow things down.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
At the foundation of every good meeting is a good meeting plan, or agenda. And Mr. Robert is the man with the plan. Robert's Rules provides your group with a standard order of business, which is simply a sequence for taking up each different class of business in order as follows: Reading and approval of minutes.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The motion to amend is perhaps the single most-used of the subsidiary motions allowed by Robert's Rules. You use this motion when you want to change the wording of the motion under consideration. You can use it to make a good idea better or a bad idea more palatable. Amendments are really at the heart of the process of perfecting motions before a final vote, and the importance of understanding the basics of amending can't be overstated.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
No matter how good a job you've done creating your bylaws, sooner or later you'll need to change something. Robert's Rules encourages creating bylaws that can't be too easily amended, but amending them isn't so difficult that you can't consider and make changes within a reasonable time when necessary. Setting the conditions for amending your bylaws In amending a previously adopted bylaw, make sure that the rights of all members continue to be protected.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
Robert's Rules are designed to facilitate the transaction of business by your group, not to hinder it. If you're going to be effective in meetings, you need to know the right — and wrong — ways to use parliamentary motions. The following list clues you in to the more frequent and obvious places where some members reveal their tenuous grasp on Robert's Rules of Order: Speaking without recognition: It's a mistake to make just about any motion without first being recognized by the chair.
Article / Updated 03-26-2016
The election process may be the easiest part of deciding who handles a particular job in the organization. Robert's Rules on elections are very straightforward after what is often a politically charged prequel of nominating and campaigning. An election is really nothing more than the handling of an assumed motion, with the question being on whom to elect to fill a position.