Rule for Speaking During a Meeting

[Guest BaCall]

Is there a rule that prohibits interruptions when someone has the floor or is speaking during a meeting?

[Richard Brown]

Yes, but certain interuptions are permitted. It depends on the circumstances. Can you be more specific about the situation you are concerned about?

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

See RONR (11th ed.), tinted pages 40–41 for a handy list of permitted interruptions.

[Guest BaCall]

Thank you Richard and Guess Whose Coming to Dinner. Whenever I ride to respond on an item of agenda business, I am cut off and prohibited from speaking. I am the only female member of a 16 person executive board. When told to bring an issue up under new business i do, but I can't ask a question (Point of Information) without being interrupted. How can I learn or contribute if I can't obtain information during the meeting? Would appreciate any guidance using Roberts Rules since they are always using them to shut me down.

[Joshua Katz]

Raise a point of order to disruptions when you have the floor.  

[Gary Novosielski]

Yes.

There are certain limited situations that are permitted to interrupt a member who has the floor, but in general as long as you do not exceed any established time limits, it is the duty of the chair to protect you from interruption.  If you are interrupted, you should raise a point of order that you have the floor and should not be interrupted.

[Setemu]

A request for information is in order when another member [the speaker] has the floor (RONR Tinted Pages, p. 18), but the speaker must consent in order for the inquirer to proceed (p. 295).

[Guest Who's Coming to Dinner]

11 hours ago, Guest BaCall said:

Whenever I ride to respond on an item of agenda business, I am cut off and prohibited from speaking.

Cut off by whom? The chairman? Another member? Are you certain that it is order to "respond" at that moment?

[Joshua Katz]

GWCTD has a good point.  The description here can range from a board not wishing to hear uncomfortable truths, to a member who is simply out of order, to anywhere in between or outside these extremes.  

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with the previous posters, it makes a difference as to exactly what the situation is and what is going on, who has the floor and what you are trying to do at the moment of interruption and what the reason is for the interruption. And who is doing the interrupting. It is something we simply cannot generalize about.

[Richard Brown]

On 1/5/2018 at 4:07 AM, Guest BaCall said:

Is there a rule that prohibits interruptions when someone has the floor or is speaking during a meeting?

Guest BaCall,  for questions like that, you really need a copy of RONR:  http://robertsrules.com/book.html.

It's about $18 retail, but can be ordered from Amazon from around $12.  It is indispensable for anything beyond the most basic rules.   As you will be able to see from the excerpt I'm about to post below, the question you asked is actually addressed in several different sections of the book.   In the spirit of the Christmas season, I'm going to do something I don't usually do and quote from a rather lengthy section of the book.  As you can see, the quoted section refers the reader to several other sections for further explanation.  That's why you need the book.  The Right Book.  Not any ol' book about Robert's Rules of Order or parliamentary procedure.  There are lots of knockoff books that are not the real thing.

Here is what RONR says in general about interruptions on pages 383-385:  (The numbers in parentheses without p or pp are to whole sections of the book).

"Interruption of a Member Assigned the Floor
When a member has been assigned the floor and has begun to speak—unless he begins to discuss a subject when no motion is pending or speaks longer in debate than the rules of the assembly allow—he cannot be interrupted by another member or by the chair except for one of the following [page 384] purposes, and then only when the urgency of the situation justifies it:
    a)    a Call for the Orders of the Day (18) when they are not being conformed to,
    b )  the raising of a question of privilege (19),
    c)    a Point of Order or the calling of the member who has the floor to order (23, 61)—or the chair's calling this member's attention to the fact that he is failing to observe the rules of speaking (pp. 645–46),
    d)    a call for a separate vote on one or more of a set of independent resolutions on different subjects, or a divisible set of amendments, that have been offered by a single motion (pp. 110, 274–75),
    e)    a request or inquiry (32, 33) that requires an immediate response;
or, in certain special circumstances, these additional purposes:
    f)    an Appeal (24),
    g)    an Objection to the Consideration of a Question (26), or
    h)    a Division of the Assembly (29).
After a member has been assigned the floor but before he has begun to speak, it is in order to take any of the steps listed above, and also, if there may be no other opportunity, to rise for the purpose of:
    a)    giving notice of intent to introduce a motion requiring such notice (pp. 121–24); or
    b )  making a motion to Reconsider (37) or to Reconsider and Enter on the Minutes (pp. 332–35).
If an interruption occurs for any of the reasons listed above, the member who had the floor does not lose it, [page 385] although he takes his seat while the interrupting matter is being attended to. As soon as the interruption has been disposed of, the chair directs him to rise and proceed by saying, for example, "Mr. Lewis has the floor."
If a member presenting a committee report or other document to the assembly hands it to the secretary or a reading clerk to be read, the member does not thereby yield the floor, but has it again when the reading is finished.
When a member has risen to claim the floor or has been assigned the floor, it is out of order for another to call out a motion to adjourn, or a motion to lay the pending question on the table. If someone does so, or if calls of "Question!" are made, it is the duty of the chair to obtain order and protect the rights of the member who is entitled to the floor."

Edited January 6, 2018 at 07:06 PM by Richard Brown
corrected typos

[Richard Brown]

15 hours ago, Guest BaCall said:

Thank you Richard and Guess Whose Coming to Dinner. Whenever I ride to respond on an item of agenda business, I am cut off and prohibited from speaking. I am the only female member of a 16 person executive board. When told to bring an issue up under new business i do, but I can't ask a question (Point of Information) without being interrupted. How can I learn or contribute if I can't obtain information during the meeting? Would appreciate any guidance using Roberts Rules since they are always using them to shut me down.

5

Guest BaCall, please explain exactly what you mean, or what you are doing, when you say " Whenever I rise to respond on an item of agenda business, I am cut off and prohibited from speaking."   In what way are you "responding" to an item of agenda business?  What else is happening at the instant you "rise to respond..."?  And in what way and by whom are you being interrupted and prohibited from speaking?

Edited January 6, 2018 at 07:27 PM by Richard Brown
Added last sentence