PARLIAA

• Henry Martyn Robert

  U.S. Army officer, author of the standard manual on parliamentary procedure in the United States, known as Robert's Rules of Order
• Born


  May 2, 1837
• Died


  May 11, 1923
• Henry Martyn Robert


  • Graduate (1857) of the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y.
  • Commissioned in the Corps of Engineers
  • Retired (1901) with the rank of brigadier general
  • Constructed defenses for Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; and the port of New Bedford, Mass. during the Civil War (1861–65)
• About 1862


  1. Presided over a turbulent meeting of his church

  2. Learned that there was no generally accepted set of parliamentary rules

  3. Began to write his own code, breaking with precedent when necessary

  4. Produced the Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies in 1876

  5. The work was immediately successful and went through numerous editions during Robert's lifetime, including the 1915 revision, entitled Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deliberative Assemblies (revised, 1971, as Robert's Rules of Order Revised)

  6. Robert's Parliamentary Practice (1921) and Parliamentary Law (1922) were still in print in the 1970s
• Parliamentary Procedure


  A protocol employed by legislative bodies to facilitate meetings
• Goals of parliamentary procedure

  • Protect the rights of the minority
  • Maintain the rule of the majority
  • Promote the most efficient proceedings
• Parliamentary procedure


  Provides the process for proposing, amending, approving and defeating legislative motions
• Purpose of parliamentary procedure

  • Help groups accomplish their tasks through an orderly, democratic process
  • Not intended to inhibit a meeting with unnecessary rules or to prevent people from expressing their opinions
  • Intended to facilitate the smooth functioning of the meeting and promote cooperation and harmony among members
• Rules of order originated in the early British Parliaments


  1560s
• Sir Thomas Smith


  Wrote an early formal statement of procedures in the House of Commons, which was published in 1583
• Points included in Sir Thomas Smith's work


  • One subject should be discussed at a time (adopted 1581)
  • The chair must always call for the negative vote (1604)
  • Personal attacks and indecorous behaviour are to be avoided in debate
  • Debate must be limited to the merits of the question (1610)
• A Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1801)


  First work to interpret and define parliamentary principles for the new American government, written by Thomas Jefferson
• The modern system of general parliamentary law and practice is, in many respects, at wide variance with the current systems of procedure of both the British Parliament and the U.S. Congress
• Manual of Parliamentary Practice (1845)


  Early attempt in the United States to serve "assemblies of every description especially those not legislative in their character", written by Luther S. Cushing
• Robert's Rules of Order (1876)


  Codified by U.S. Army officer General Henry M. Robert, has had a lasting impact on the development of parliamentary procedure
• Deliberative assembly


  • An independent or autonomous group convened to determine actions of the group in free discussion
  • Its size is sufficiently large that formal proceedings are necessary
  • Its members are free to act, and each member's vote has equal weight
  • Failure to agree "does not constitute withdrawal from the body"
  • Members who are present act for the entire membership "subject only to such limitations as may be established by the body's governing rules"
• Importance of parliamentary procedure

  • A useful tool for conducting meetings, assuring fairness, and completing business in an orderly manner
  • Defines the democratic process of decision-making within a group
  • Allows for fair, free, and equitable discussion of any motion or proposal brought to a group
• Formal rules of procedure usually become more important as groups become larger or more diverse, issues become more controversial or complex, or the stakes involved become more significant
• Procedural rules should always be seen as a means to an end, not an end in themselves
• A small group may be able to work effectively without any formal rules if no one tries to dominate the meeting and members treat each other's viewpoints with respect
• How parliamentary procedure works

  1. Presiding member begins by reiterating the events of the last meeting (the meeting minutes)

  2. A member must bring all new issues to the group through motions
• Purposes of parliamentary procedure

  • Ensure majority rule
  • Protect the rights of the minority, the absentees and individual members
  • Provide order, fairness and decorum
  • Facilitate the transaction of business and expedite meetings
• Basic principles of parliamentary procedure

  • All members have equal rights, privileges and obligations
  • A quorum must be present for the group to act
  • Full and free discussion of every motion is a basic right
  • Only one question at a time may be considered, and only one person may have the floor at any one time
  • Members have a right to know what the immediately pending question is and to have it restated before a vote is taken
  • No person can speak until recognized by the chair
  • Personal remarks are always out of order
  • A majority decides a question except when basic rights of members are involved
  • A two-thirds vote is required for any motion that deprives a member of rights in any way
  • Silence gives consent
  • The chair should always remain impartial
• When people come together in their organizations and governments to conduct business, certain rules, referred to collectively as parliamentary procedure, must be applied correctly to maintain these democratic principles
• Organization members commonly make two mistakes: They do not know parliamentary procedure at all, and/or they misapply it because they don't understand the underlying democratic principles or they want to manipulate them
• Authoritarian model


  Favors the concentration of power in a leader or a small group of people who may or may not be responsible to the members
• Democratic model


  The people or the members govern
• Applying democratic principles to organizations

  • The members rule through a decision-making process that they've established by a vote
  • Ideas come from the members and are presented to the assembly to decide upon
  • Leaders come from the people through an election process
  • Checks and balances between the leadership and the members are established in the governing documents
  • All members are equal — they have equal rights and responsibilities
  • The organization is run with impartiality and fairness
  • There is equal justice under the law; members and officers have a right to a fair trial if accused
  • The majority rules, but the rights of the minority and absent members are protected
  • Everything is accomplished in the spirit of openness, not secrecy
  • Members have the right to resign from office or from the organization
• Parliamentary procedure


  Enables members to take care of business in an efficient manner and to maintain order while business is conducted
• Parliamentary authority


  A reference book that helps the members decide what to do when the group has no written rules concerning how certain things are done
• Basic principles behind Robert's rules of order


  • Take up business one item at a time
  • Promote courtesy, justice, impartiality, and equality
  • The majority rules, but the rights of individual, minority, and absent members are protected
• Taking up business one item at a time

  1. Each meeting follows an order of business called an agenda

  2. Only one main motion can be pending at a time

  3. When a main motion is pending, members can make motions from a class of motions called secondary motions

  4. Only one member can be assigned the floor at a time

  5. Members take turns speaking

  6. No member speaks twice about a motion until all members have had the opportunity to speak
• Promoting courtesy, justice, impartiality, and equality

  1. The chair or presiding officer calls the meeting to order on time

  2. Members take their seats promptly when the chair calls the meeting to order, and conversation stops

  3. Those members giving reports during the meeting take seats in front

  4. Members rise to be recognized by the presiding officer and don't speak out of turn

  5. Members always refer to other members and officers in the third person

  6. In debate, members do not cross talk, or talk directly to each other, when another member is speaking

  7. Members keep discussion to the issues, not to personalities or other members' motives

  8. When correcting a member, the presiding officer doesn't use the member's name

  9. Members speak clearly and loudly so all can hear

  10. Members listen when others are speaking
• How justice, impartiality, and equality operate in meetings

  • The presiding officer doesn't take sides but allows all to be heard equally in debate
  • The presiding officer and members should know the rules and apply them judiciously
  • The presiding officer ensures that all sides of an issue are heard and that the rules of debate are carefully followed
  • Members have the right to make a motion to take a vote by ballot during a controversial issue
  • Members have the right to a trial when they're accused of wrongdoing
• The rule of the majority and protection of the minority

  • Members have the right to have notice of all meetings
  • Members have the right to know by previous notice when there is a proposal to rescind or amend something previously adopted
  • In any situation where rights may be taken away from members, two-thirds of the membership must approve the motion
  • No one has the right to require a higher vote than a majority vote on issues unless the bylaws or the parliamentary authority specifically states that more than a majority is required
  • Members have a right to be informed of the work of the organization
• Agenda


  Latin word meaning "things to be done"
• A business meeting provides members with the opportunity to propose ideas and to participate in forming the plans and actions of the organization
• To do this in an orderly and efficient fashion, the business of the meeting is conducted according to the first principle of parliamentary procedure, which states that business is taken up one item at a time
• Accepted order of business

  1. Before any business can be transacted at a meeting, the president must determine that a quorum is present

  2. The president then calls the meeting to order

  3. The minutes of the previous meeting are read and approved

  4. The reports of officers, boards, and standing committees are read and discussed

  5. The reports of special committees (if there are any) are heard