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https://www.wiley.com/Robert%27s+Rules+For+Dummies%2C+4th+Edition-p-9781119824589
C. Alan Jennings, PRP
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Published:
February 8, 2022

Robert's Rules For Dummies

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Overview

All in favor of improving meeting procedures, say Aye!

Trying to keep your in-person and virtual meetings on track and running smoothly? You need Robert's Rules of Order! These rules for conducting meetings have stood the test of time as the gold standard for practical and effective procedure in group settings like corporate and nonprofit boards, councils, and more. And there's no better way to learn the latest version of the rules than with Robert's Rules For Dummies.

This handy guide demystifies the Rules and offers readers a practical roadmap to applying efficient procedures to everything from conducting online and in-person meetings

to voting by email. It also:

  • Contains brand-new, updated content on the latest 12th Edition of Robert’s Rules
  • Offers sample meeting agendas, minutes, scripts, and other material to show you how the pros keep meeting records
  • Walks you through the basic—and not so basic—ways to nominate and elect officers and directors in organizations

Ideal for board members, convention delegates, business owners, nonprofit executives, and anyone else trying to maintain an orderly flow of business—online or in person—Robert’s Rules For Dummies is a need-to-read resource that will make you wonder how you ever survived without it.

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About The Author

C. Alan Jennings, PRP, is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian credentialed by the National Association of Parliamentarians. He is a past President of the Louisiana Association of Parliamentarians and a member of the American Institute of Parliamentarians.

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CHEAT SHEET

Robert's Rules provides rules and procedures that allow a deliberative assembly to make its decisions efficiently, and with all due regard for the rights of the minority. Following the rules ensures more a fair and more achievable outcome without wasting time, but remembering all the details of parliamentary procedure can be a tall order.
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Articles from
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Robert’s Rules make it obvious that the secretary is one of the two officers your organization absolutely can’t do without. It needs a presiding officer and a recording clerk to conduct a meeting and have a proper record of it, and the secretary is the recording clerk for the assembly. No other office is more important to the smooth functioning of your group.
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Robert’s Rules outline the roles of the treasurer. You’ve got a big job on your hands if you’re the treasurer. Before you accept this position, find out exactly what it entails. Regardless of the size of the organization or the number of figures to the left of the decimal on your group’s bank balance, your basic job description includes the following: Serve as custodian of the funds of the organization, keeping careful records of all receipts and making no disbursements without the authority of the assembly (including established authorizations found in the organization’s rules).
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The one function of a vice president as provided in Robert’s Rules is to serve in the absence of the president and to automatically succeed to the office of president in case of that officer’s death or resignation. In fact, members can’t elect a new president to fill a vacancy in that office unless the bylaws expressly call for it.
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An easy way to remember the Robert’s Rules standard order of business is with the mnemonic 3R-SUN — you can see it clearly in the following list. This list is a quick reference to make it easy for you to set up a basic agenda for your meeting. Reading and approval of minutes Reports of officers, boards, a
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In an organization that's following Robert's Rules, when that light bulb goes off in your head and you have a great idea, you make a motion to get your idea discussed and a decision made. Here are the eight steps required from start to finish to make a motion and get the decision of the assembly. Each step is a required part of the process.
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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.
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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.
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Robert's Rules provides rules and procedures that allow a deliberative assembly to make its decisions efficiently, and with all due regard for the rights of the minority. Following the rules ensures more a fair and more achievable outcome without wasting time, but remembering all the details of parliamentary procedure can be a tall order.
Read More
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When discussing Robert’s Rules and parliamentary procedure, the questions always comes up whether it’s okay to vote by email or by using a web-based service for Internet voting. The answer, as is so often the case with questions about parliamentary procedure, is “It depends.” First, unless you make provisions in the bylaws for absentee balloting, the answer is “No.
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No matter how good your idea may be, if you want to propose something that goes against the bylaws (or your charter or constitution, if you have either or both), Robert’s Rules state that your presiding officer has no choice but to rule your motion “out of order,” which is a nice, succinct way of saying, “We can’t go there now because, for some reason, it’s against the rules.
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When it comes to determining election results using Robert’s Rules — well, you know about the hanging chads of the infamous 2000 U.S. presidential election. Rules for contesting elections are something this country is all about. All that counts is how you handle the challenge. Robert’s Rules has just the answer: more rules!
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Despite the best of plans, sometimes your group just can’t finish its order of business in a given meeting or session, even when you use Robert’s Rules. If you run out of time before you’ve elected all the positions you plan to fill, don’t worry. It’s not the end of the world — just the end of the meeting! And meetings being what they are, you can be sure you’ll have another one.
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One sure thing in the world of meetings and Robert’s Rules is that, sooner or later, all motions are disposed of. No, that doesn’t mean they’re thrown out. (Well, some of them are, but that’s not how the term is used here.) Disposing of a motion simply refers to making some decision about the motion so that you can move on to the next item of business — in other words, it’s the end result of all the talk.
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Filling vacancies can be tricky business. Robert’s Rules details what you need to know. Don’t get too comfortable! Just when the members are doing what they’re supposed to do and everybody is getting along, an officer resigns for some personal reason. Or maybe you have to throw out a bum officer. No matter how good or bad things are, vacancies in office occur.
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Robert’s Rules allow members to interrupt a debate when necessary. Most people were taught (or, at least, were told) that it’s never polite to interrupt someone who’s speaking. That etiquette rule works when it comes to interviews, dinner parties, and the like, but not when you’re dealing with Robert’s Rules. During debate in a business meeting, interrupting a speaker is often necessary to protect your rights or the rights of the other members.
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Robert’s Rules outlines what you need to do for your charter meeting. For all but the smallest organizations in which everybody who is going to enroll does so at the second organizational meeting, you must conduct a third meeting, known as a charter meeting. The charter meeting is actually the first official business meeting of the new organization.
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Sometimes called open nominations, this method is probably the most familiar of Robert’s Rules. It’s used in the vast majority of situations when members elect their officers at a meeting. Even if a nominating committee is in place, under Robert’s Rules, nominations from the floor are in order at some point before the election is pending.
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Robert’s Rules has guidelines for postponing meetings. In some ways, real life and meetings aren’t all that different. Sometimes you just need to put things off. Unfortunately, groups don’t always have all the information they need to reach a decision. As a result, continuing to consider particular motions becomes difficult.
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Robert’s Rules is very specific about what you should do with reports and recommendations. Consider yourself a prisoner of your words. When the time comes to present a report to your organization, be sure you use terms correctly and in the proper context — you don’t want to do or say something you wish you hadn’t!
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Special meetings are, well, special. According to Robert’s Rules, they’re called only if 1) something important comes up that must be dealt with before the next regular meeting, or 2) some particular business matter(s) is important enough that it needs to be the exclusive reason for the entire meeting.After all, you’re busy, so special meetings had better be important, right?
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You may already be familiar with Robert’s Rules and the motion to Lay on the Table, the highest-ranking subsidiary motion. This motion is used to temporarily set aside a pending main motion, permitting something else to be addressed or done.In most cases, the “something else” carries a sense of urgency, such as the need to allow your guest speaker to address your group at a particular time without compromising his schedule.
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Robert’s Rules state that you have to address motions that were before the assembly but not disposed of (for whatever reason) in earlier meetings, but that weren’t made special orders. At this point in the order of business, items fall into two categories: unfinished business and general orders. Unfinished business Suppose you’re considering a motion to lease a pink limousine for the Elvis impersonator scheduled to headline your annual talent show.
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According to Robert’s Rules, any original main motion that you just think is such a bad idea that it should never even be discussed is a fair target for Objection to the Consideration of a Question. This incidental motion is in order until the members begin to consider and debate the main motion. In fact, if there’s no discussion of the main motion and any subsidiary motion (except Lay on the Table) is proposed, Objection to the Consideration is still in order until the chair states the proposed subsidiary motion.
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Robert’s Rules dictate that you can’t get around the requirement that a quorum be present to take official action in the name of your group. The quorum rule holds fast even if everybody in attendance votes unanimously to do something. In fact, Robert’s Rules says that any action done by those in attendance at an inquorate meeting is null and void, at least as an action of the organization.
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Robert’s Rules has a special form of the Reconsider motion. Suppose a motion is made in a meeting in which the group in attendance isn’t at all representative of the usual attendance. Maybe you’re near the end of the meeting, and several members have left. You still have a quorum, but the usual minority is now in the majority.
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The best presiding officers plan ahead. With an agenda and knowledge of the business at hand before the meeting, a plan can turn into a script like the following example that following Robert's Rules and will enable you to preside like a pro. President’s Scripted Agenda June 19, 2012 Call to order: 3:00 p.m.Rap the gavel once.
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