Are Policies Needed?

[Guest yvonne]

Our association has never had any "written" policies. They've flown by the seat of their pants for years. I am now on the Board and am pulling together policies and the board is approving them. Two board members are opposed to policies but lean heavily on Roberts Rules. What does Roberts Rules say about policies, if anything? Thanks

[jstackpo]

Very little.

Indeed, in the discussion about suspending "Standing Rules", p. 266, the very word was edited out from the 10th edition. And from the index.

"Policy" does get used in the text, usually with same meaning as the word "rule".

Try calling your proposed policies "Standing Rules" and see if your associates are more amenable. There's lots of discussion of the latter in the book.

[Josh Martin]

Our association has never had any "written" policies. They've flown by the seat of their pants for years. I am now on the Board and am pulling together policies and the board is approving them. Two board members are opposed to policies but lean heavily on Roberts Rules. What does Roberts Rules say about policies, if anything? Thanks

See RONR, 11th ed., pgs. 15-18 for a discussion of special rules of order and standing rules. Most of your policies are likely to be the latter, but it's possible you'll want a few of the former. Note that RONR's primary concern is how to adopt such rules, not what rules you should have - that varies too much from organization to organization.

[sMargaret]

See pages 18 and 19 for a bit more information about Standing Rules / Policies, and Custom. You may also wish to point out to people that setting out rules ahead of time, with a bit of time to think about them, is preferable to having to make sudden decisions at the spur of the moment, or doing something just because it's the way "it's always been done".

[g40]

Perhaps the more basic question is what sort of "policies" are being discussed/debated? Are these "polices" related to the functioning of the board, or are they related to the organization's operation? So, for example, a "policy" related to desired/required notice of motions to be introduced (different from RONR) would be the former, while the menu prices at the organization's bar/restaurant would be the latter.