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the chair's as a neutral


anthony liberatore

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RONR 11TH ed makes a strong argument that the chair should maintain a neutral and objective posture, when there is a debate. I like that idea and therfore I believe that the chair should make eveery attempt to stay above the debate. 

My study club members maintain that the chair can and may participate in debate. To me that contradicts the argument that the chair should remain neutral. I believe this may be the reason so many people, educated people, see Robert's Rules as unnecessary and arbitrary.

I am like the grasshopper in my club, but it seems to me tha the chair and the assembly should go into committee of the whole, whereby the chair appoints another to run question in order that he or she can get involved in the debate.

I thikn I upset people and I never felt like I was given any proper direction. I was simply told that I was wrong. Like to read some opinions based on RONR.

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The chair should not participate in debate, except under small board rules.  Could that be the distinction your study club members are making?  In any event, the chair could simply hand off the gavel; there's no need to go into committee of the whole.

I don't see how your study club being incorrect about the chair's neutrality would be a reason many educated people dislike Robert's Rules.  I suspect a lot of people dislike rules of order for the same reason they agree that lawyers are awful:  a desire to act as authoritarians without being impeded by rules.  This is why you shouldn't lay flat the forest in an effort to catch the Devil.  (The famous Shakespearean line "First thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers" is said by Dick the Butcher, and the context is his desire to see a lawless tyranny imposed.)

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Guest Who's Coming to Dinner

The chairman must have the trust of all the members in order to be effective. When she or he takes a side in debate, that trust is eroded in members on the opposite side. They will become suspicious of future rulings in similar or related situations. The presiding officer should engage in debate only under exceptional circumstances where something truly crucial is at stake, and then, of course, only by turning over the chair to someone else.

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