Creating Communities that Inspire

If you haven’t already noticed, making decisions alone isn’t very easy… now imagine making decisions with a large group of your peers.

For a lot of you, you don’t have to imagine this scenario, you’ve lived it. You’ve probably sat through long scatter-brained meetings, where several topics were discussed but nearly nothing was decided upon. You may have witnessed verbal fights amongst peers while everyone else sat quietly on the sidelines.

It can become commonplace for some voices to overpower the conversation while other voices don’t make a peep. 

So what’s missing from your meetings?

Rules!

Parliamentary Procedure is the Rules of Conducting a Meeting

You wouldn’t play sports or a board game without rules. Can you even imagine driving without rules? It would be complete chaos! 

Parliamentary Procedure is just the set of rules that help decision-making meetings run smoothly and effectively. Their purpose is to:

  • Help the group to get decisions made
  • Increase the meeting’s focus
  • Create an environment where everyone is treated equally and fairly
  • Allow everyone’s voice to be heard.
  • Reduce the time it takes to hold a meeting

There are many kinds of Parliamentary Procedure guides, but the most popular for student organizations is Robert’s Rules of Order. While the official manual is a whopping 700+ pages, there are several simplified versions on the market that are much shorter. 

Look back later for SOS’s Super Simplified Guide for Running Student Organization Meetings!      

The Rules Can be Tailored to Fit Your Organization

Since Robert’s Rules are used by other types of organizations(such as HOAs or non-profits), governing bodies, and company boards, many aspects of these Robert’s Rules will never be used by your student group. . 

Actually, the rules can be modified to the best fit for your student org. Your group can dictate how formal or informal you all would like to run meetings and cast votes on issues. Your rules can even set limits or no limits on how long members can speak on an issue. 

Rules can even change based on group sizes. Officer meetings which are typically a small select group can run less formally while general meetings with most of the members will likely have more rules to help speed along debate and group decisions. 

The Principles of Parliamentary Procedure

While the rules can be modified, the basic principles of parliamentary procedure must remain intact for meeting to run efficiently and democratically.  

These basic principles are: 

  1. Everyone has equal rights – the right to vote, the right to be heard, and the right to oppose.
  2. Only one issue can be discussed at a time.
  3. The rights of the minority must be protected.
  4. The majority’s vote decides the issue.

As long as you write your meeting rules with these principles in mind, your meetings will lead to a happier and more attentive group of peers.