Most people have heard of Robert’s Rules of Order (formally known as Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised), which is the most popular and comprehensive parliamentary authority adopted by organizations in Canada and the United States. Originally published in 1876 by Henry M. …

First published in 1876, Robert’s Rules of Order has become the standard international authority or manual for organizing and conducting decision-making meetings. It was originally written by General Henry M. Robert, an engineer in the U.S. Army, who was frustrated at the ‘parliamentary anarchy’ he found in attending meetings of…

Welcome to the inaugural post of Monday’s Myths in #ParliamentaryProcedure, successor to Tuesday’s Teachable Tweet, which is being retired after two years of service. …

I am sometimes asked by organizations if, instead of hiring a professional, they can just ask one of their members to be the parliamentarian at their meetings. It is not unusual for the bylaws of some organizations to authorize their President or Board to appoint a member to act as…

Can a meeting shut the doors and prevent members from entering the room during a vote? The answer is yes. It is not uncommon at meetings, especially conventions, to ‘tile’ the doors during voting and balloting. Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised says (in 45:15 of the 12th edition) ‘In…

This question arose most recently during a workshop in which a participant complained about a committee chair in her organization who occasionally ‘waives’ Robert’s Rules of Order at meetings. I have also encountered this view of a chair’s powers in other organizations. While it is possible to temporarily suspend one…

Two recent incidents in the Canadian Parliament illustrate an important procedural rule that applies when participating in debate in any organization. The Speaker of the House of Commons ruled in September that Opposition Conservative MPs who were using the term ‘Justinflation’ when attacking the government’s efforts to deal with inflation…

With many organizations returning to in-person meetings, I am re-posting a revised version of my observations on virtual meetings, originally written one year after the March 2020 declaration of the pandemic. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization classified the COVID-19 virus as a global pandemic, and a few…

Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR) is used to govern the meeting procedures in most organizations in Canada and the United States. Not surprisingly, the manual does have its critics. Here is a look at some recent negative comments about Robert’s Rules of Order from a variety of Twitter…