| Large meetings
(such as annual general meetings of societies, public companies or credit
unions, or public hearings held by municipalities and school districts)
can become chaotic and wasteful, especially when the issues are controversial.
To prevent this
from happening, you need to set the stage for orderly, efficient, and
inclusive discussions. What may help you achieve this goal is a one-page
summary of the essential participation guidelines for such meetings.
You don’t have to give participants a 600 page rule book. Just
give them the essentials. Here is a sample summary of such rules (see
notes at the end):
Summary
of Pertinent Discussion Guidelines
Welcome to this
meeting. The following rules are intended to help us facilitate progress,
include the members in orderly debate, and ensure fairness, equality
and common sense:
- The meeting
will be generally run in accordance with the provisions of the legislation,
the Bylaws, and the current edition of Rules of Order.
- Only Voting
Members are eligible to speak, make motions and vote. Other individuals
may request permission to speak, and the Voting Members may grant
such permission by a majority vote or unanimous consent.
- Proxy voting
is not permitted. A Voting Member may not pass his or her voting
card to another member to vote on his or her behalf (see note 2 below).
- A person who
wishes to speak will approach a microphone, show his or her voting
card, wait to be acknowledged by the Chair, and open by stating his
or her name and affiliation.
- On each debatable
motion, each Member will be entitled to speak up to two (2) times,
each time for no longer than three (3) minutes. Speaking a third
time or longer than 3 minutes will require permission from the assembly.
- To speak a second
time on the same issue, a Member must wait until those who wish to
speak on it for the first time have done so.
- Debate must
be germane to the motion or issue that is on the floor. To maintain
balance in the discussions, the Chair may alternate between proponents
and opponents of a motion.
- Debate on a
motion may be closed by unanimous consent, or - if there is no unanimity
- by a motion to close debate (such a motion should be presented from
a microphone and cannot interrupt a person who was recognized to speak).
- Unscheduled
motions may be permitted under “New Business”, provided
they are not in conflict with the legislation or the Bylaws.
- In the interests
of maintaining clarity and efficiency, the Chair may require that
a motion or an amendment be submitted in writing before it is considered.
| Notes:
- You can
customize the rules to your meeting.
- Check
your legislation or Bylaws to see whether proxy voting is permitted.
If not, it is prohibited and only members who are present get
to vote. Adjust the summary if proxies are permitted.
- In the
case of a government-sponsored public hearing the citizens
do not vote, and you’ll need to remove the rules that
refer to voting. All you’ll probably need is a modified
version of rules 4 to 6. For example:
- Citizens
who want to speak will approach a microphone, wait to be recognized
by the Chair, and open by stating their names and addresses.
- Those
who signed up to speak will be called on first. Others will
be able to add their names to the list as the meeting progresses.
- Speakers
will be limited to 3 minute presentations each time.
- After
the first round of speakers, a second round will commence,
under the same rules.
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