PRP

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.

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.

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.

Ballot voting is the preferred voting method in situations in which knowing how all the members voted isn't desirable. You can use a ballot vote to decide either a motion or an election: If the ballot vote decides a motion, the question is clearly stated by the chair, and you're instructed to mark your ballot Yes or No (or For or Against).

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.

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.

Robert's Rules offers quite a selection of voting methods, whether you're voting on motions or having elections. The methods range from asking for unanimous agreement to showing how you vote by voice or other physical action to voting by secret ballot. The voting methods recognized by Robert's Rules include Unanimous consent Quite possibly the most efficient way of conducting a vote, unanimous consent is the voting method of choice because it saves so much time.

Who doesn't love to hear, "I declare the meeting adjourned!"? The Robert's Rules motion for adjourning a meeting is simple but essential for almost every meeting. Situations in which adjournment can take place without a motion are When the hour adopted for adjournment has arrived. The chair announces the fact, and unless you or someone else is pretty quick to move to set aside the orders of the day, the meeting may be adjourned by declaration.

Robert's Rules places the reports of officers, boards, and special committees in a standard order of business. Reports from the leadership team, for example, tend to include items of high importance, so Robert’s Rules places them second from the top in the standard order of business. The prepared presiding officer knows in advance which officers and committees have reports, and she doesn’t waste any time calling for reports unless she knows someone has a report to give.