Ranking of a Standard Operating Procedure

[Guest W. Watson]

I am not sure I know how to ask this question or if it belongs in this forum. But I have been asked to write a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for a standing committee that I am chairing in my assembly.  My problem is that I don’t know how such a set of procedures are to rank in the body of rules.  Where do they rank in the hierarchy of rules 1)Law, 2)Constitution/Bylaws, 3)Rules of Order, 4)Standing Rules, 5)Customs.  RONR that we have adopted does not address SOPs (at least as far as I could find). Are SOPs considered a set of standing rules that are subordinate to RONR.  Can they conflict with RONR. Sorry, perhaps this is something I should know but some in my organization seems to think they are of higher rank than RONR. Can you give me some guidance or direct me to a good reference. 

 

Thanks

[Gödel Fan]

As a general statement, SOPs would be standing rules - however, I'm unclear on why they're being adopted for a committee.  Are they about how the committee will operate?  Who has asked you to do this?  In any event, they'd then need to be adopted by whatever body they're going to be rules for.

 

In many contexts where the phrase is used, though, such as fire departments, there's involvement with laws and things get complicated as there may be interaction between the organization itself and governmental bodies.  Anyway, a bit more detail would probably help here.

[Josh Martin]

I am not sure I know how to ask this question or if it belongs in this forum. But I have been asked to write a set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for a standing committee that I am chairing in my assembly. My problem is that I don’t know how such a set of procedures are to rank in the body of rules. Where do they rank in the hierarchy of rules 1)Law, 2)Constitution/Bylaws, 3)Rules of Order, 4)Standing Rules, 5)Customs. RONR that we have adopted does not address SOPs (at least as far as I could find). Are SOPs considered a set of standing rules that are subordinate to RONR. Can they conflict with RONR. Sorry, perhaps this is something I should know but some in my organization seems to think they are of higher rank than RONR. Can you give me some guidance or direct me to a good reference.

Since I have no idea what a "standard operating procedure" is, I don't know what type of rules these are. They're going to be either special rules of order or standing rules.

Special rules of order relate to the conduct of business in a meeting. Standing rules relate to administrative details. Special rules of order take precedence over RONR. Standing rules won't conflict with RONR, since they address different subjects.

As a general statement, SOPs would be standing rules - however, I'm unclear on why they're being adopted for a committee. Are they about how the committee will operate? Who has asked you to do this? In any event, they'd then need to be adopted by whatever body they're going to be rules for.

Not necessarily. Committees do not have the power to adopt their own rules, unless authorized to do so by the parent assembly.