On books

On books

Another take on Robert’s Rules
[6-26-09]

Sue Spencer wrote last October about a helpful variation on Robert's Rules, which offers a less highly regulated approach to getting business done in a group.

She has recently discovered a haiku written by a Youth Advisory Delegate at the 2008 General Assembly, which she appreciated as making just her point:

Robert and his rules
They make sense some of the time
But tonight they don't.

Thanks to Covenant Network for reporting this, and to Sue Spencer for sharing it with us.

"Roberta's Rules of Order":
Helping Progressive Presbyterians Be More Progressive in group Meetings and Decision-Making
[1-31-09]

(See the book review by Sue Spencer below.)

Do you feel like you're running your session or church committee meetings like Congress? No wonder! The rules called Robert's Rules of Order were written over 130 years ago, derived from English Parliament, as were the rules still used by the House and Senate.

Major Henry Robert (US Army Engineer) developed a version of these rules to help control unruly people (all men, in those days) in a church! They were intended for large, decision-making groups called Deliberative Assemblies. Today they are still useful for large congregational meetings – but not smaller Sessions, committees or task forces.

Robert's Rules or Order (Newly Revised, 10th edition) states in Chapter One, page one, that these rules need not be used in groups of about a dozen members or fewer that don't want the same degree of formality. The important thing is to adapt a customized set of meeting rules that uphold democratic principles but are short and easy to implement. However, most groups don't have the time to write their own rules. Enter "Roberta's Rules."

The book Roberta's Rules of Order was written by Alice Collier Cochran, a member of Sausalito Presbyterian Church (California) and published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley in 2004. It includes methods from reliable sources that have been proved to be effective in a modern and pluralistic society.

Resource A (in the back) contains a template of rules you can adopt for smaller decision-making groups. She has also just completed a QuickStart Guide to help customize these meeting rules using larger templates. Both the book and companion workbook are available online at Amazon.com.

If you've been bored or frustrated with your church's group meetings and methods of decision-making, take a look at the practical tools and techniques in Roberta's Rules of Order. For instance, compare the various decision-making options, including reaching concordance instead of consensus or simple majority rule. You can learn more at www.RobertasRules.com .

After you've given it a try, send your comments or questions to Alice at Alice@RobertasRules.com

This book notice has been provided by Alice Collier Cochran, the author, who lives in San Rafael, California.

A BETTER WAY TO SAIL THROUGH A MEETING

[10-23-08]

Sue Spenser, a Witherspoon member living in Lakeland, Florida, sends this thoughtful reflection on how we run our meetings.

Alice Collier Cochran, the author of the book, has provided some further comments of her own

Many religious organizations waste time and money by relying on Robert's Rules of Order in governing their groups. In being overly time-honored, the Rules are misunderstood. They are believed to provide a straightforward, orderly path to adjournment. But frequently groups have had to hire trained parliamentarians to guide them through the tedious thicket.

"There has to be a better way," lamented Bishop Timothy Wright after presiding over many hours dealing with a contentious issue at a recent United Methodist General Conference. And there is, indeed, a better way.

More and more non-profit groups are finding the help they need in Roberta's Rules of Order. The author, Alice Collier Cochran, was skilled in the ancient art of sailing and wanted it preserved. But, in attending sailing meetings, she began to see significant correlations between sailing and conducting business meetings. To manage old vessels one had to use old rules, but the use of old rules was what botched up many modern meetings. She presents her discoveries in her 2002 book, adding both clarity and interest through her sailing analogies.

Mrs. Cochran is careful to preserve the right of the majority to decide issues and of the minority to protest. But she understands that non-profit organizations are "all about making a difference. It's hard to make a difference," she says, "when everyone is tangled up in the rigging of procedural formality and blanketed with fog."

So her Rules lift the fog. Folderol (like "being recognized" before being allowed to speak) is discarded. Passivity gives way to affability, military language disappears, manners govern discipline and there is emphasis on simplicity. "Whenever there are rules, everyone should be able to read them, remember them and use them easily."

In contrast to Mrs. Cochran, Major Henry Horton Robert, a military engineer, cobbled his rules together after the Civil War. He did not understand commitment to a social cause and had a penchant for control. He wanted meetings to get underway with "motions." They suggested advancing, taking action.

Many busy people like this. All too often they come to meetings with the attitude, "Let's get this over as quickly as possible." But a sage has detected the fallacy in such an approach. He summed it up in one sentence: "It is better to debate an important matter without settling it than to settle it without debating it."

Sometimes members have not heard the motion correctly. Or they have not understood it or its ramifications. Then suddenly they find themselves faced with two choices: to be "for it" or "against it." Even if they have heard the motion correctly and have made up their minds, they may lack enough patience or openness to hear evidence for contrary ideas.

So Roberta's Rules require, first of all, that the voting body discuss and agree on the exact nature of the problem before confronting narrow solutions. Discovering the core of the problem is essential to arriving at wise decisions. Consider the argument between the two mothers in I Kings 3. Each one wanted to palm off the dead baby on the other and keep the live baby for herself. But the crux was not about a live baby versus a dead baby. Lining up on one mother-owner's side versus the other possible owner-mother would not achieve a settlement. The depth of the dispute concerned the elemental psychology of motherhood. And this is truly what emerged through Solomon's proposal that the living baby be cut in half. The onlookers were taken aback but they went away with a profounder grasp of the insight needed to reach an acceptable decision.

However, getting to the root of dilemmas is not always so easy. "A wide range of considerations is necessary to good judgment," says Professor Paul Woodruf in his book, Reverence The Forgotten Virtue. "Overconfidence is an ever-present danger in the human mind, and the best defense against it is listening to others, with reverence."

A poet got Roberta's sequence right:

It isn't smart in many a quarrel
To plug your ears and go "non—aural."
Back of what you say is so
There may be facts you need to know.

It isn't kind nor yet a trifle
To shout and yell the words to stifle
Of one whose points you'd like to hide
And relegate them to the side.

It's surely smart; it's surely kindly
To learn the facts and not vote blindly.
Your brain, your heart should not be beached
'til full disclosure has been reached.

Robert's Rules has endured through decades, so can we not conclude it has served organizations well? We don't know. No one has been keeping score. There is no record of how many groups have had to hire parliamentarians to assist them. How many have had to hold multiple meetings going over the sane questions because the "King Solomon" in their group did not surface? How many persons with wisdom to impart have been outmaneuvered? How many have dropped out for want of voice? How many factions have broken up and gone their separate ways?

How many have vanished altogether? We have no “Guinness Book of Robert's Rules of Order Successes.” But we have Roberta's Rules of Order ready to give us smooth sailing through our meetings if we get aboard.