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.

According to Robert’s Rules, ordinary committees are regular committees that you establish either in your bylaws or as needed to consider various items of business and operational matters outside the organization’s regular meetings. The term ordinary distinguishes the two usual types of committees from the committee of the whole and the quasi-committee of the whole.

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).

When it comes to handling a main motion, Robert's Rules streamlines the process and saves your group a lot of time. Using the following eight steps to consider ideas brought to the group in a systematic and orderly manner doesn't guarantee that everybody gets their way, but it does guarantee that everybody has their say.

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.

If a motion needs to be discussed much more informally or at greater length than is possible in a regular meeting, Robert's Rules allows you to refer the motion to a committee, or perhaps to the executive board of your group by adopting the subsidiary motion to commit. For all but the most simple and direct of motions, everyone's interests may be best served by referring a motion instead of spending a lot of meeting time on discussion.

Robert's Rules is practically synonymous with parliamentary procedure, and for good reason. Robert's Rules of Order sets out the parliamentary rules organizations can adopt as a guide for establishing the conduct of the organization and the management of its meetings. In a nutshell, Robert's Rules make meetings meaningful.