Ann Macfarlane
A friend recently described a board meeting when 20 members, who had driven or flown in from distant parts, sat around waiting because they couldn’t take action – they didn’t have a quorum. Eventually one straggler arrived and the meeting could begin. What is a quorum? A quorum is the minimum number of voting members…
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Have you ever been at a meeting where the person who made a motion becomes unhappy about the direction of the discussion, and says, “OK, I withdraw my motion”?
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Today’s Seattle Times reports that a committee chair called the vote wrong on Tuesday. The Sustainability and Transportation Committee of the Seattle City Council was considering a proposal to rescue the Pronto bike-sharing program. Chair Mike O’Brien announced that the vote was tied 3-3, meaning that it failed. However, Council Member Debora Juarez actually voted…
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Updated July 22, 2021 The “motion to appeal” is one of the least-known motions in Robert’s Rules of Order, and the most powerful. All of us are very familiar with the role of the chair of the meeting. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, the chair has the duty of keeping things on track. The chair…
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The motion “to call the question,” which has the technical name of “previous question,” may be the most abused motion in all of Robert’s Rules of Order. It is very common for people to shout out the word “question” or “I call the question” in the expectation that debate will immediately stop, and a vote…
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Reader Lon Garrison from Alaska asks how to deal with a bully who intimidates other members of the school board, including the chair. There are several things a body can do to resolve this unfortunate situation. Points to consider: 1) Bullying is never allowed at board or council meetings. It’s just common sense that when…
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My mother was sustained through the troubled years of World War II in part by the poems of David Morton. After the violence in Paris, I found myself returning to his poem, “Pieties.” The flickering lights men live by in the dark: Pity, and love, and learning, hardly won… These…
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My oldest son took me to see the movie “The Intern” and I loved every bit of it. Afterwards, I realized that the arc of the story line followed my own love story. In my twenties, I was a “bright young thing” enjoying a great career with the State Department. Everything looked great on the…
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Don’t you hate it when you’re interrupted? How about when somebody else says something that feels like a personal attack? Being disrespected feels awful for any normal person. And the good news is that you don’t have to put up with it! Rude behavior is absolutely forbidden under Robert’s Rules. When you are a member…
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Do you include what directors say in the minutes of your nonprofit board meetings? Jurassic Parliament strongly recommends that you stop immediately. Detailed accounts of “who said what to whom” in your minutes are dangerous. In the worst case, they provide fodder for your opponents should your board ever be involved in a lawsuit. In…
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