What is the friendliest way to break custom?

[Eli Zupke]

The custom for the local chapter of my fraternity has been for officers and committee chairmen to deliver their reports to the assembly extemporaneously. It is my understanding that this violates the requirement in Robert's Rules that all reports (unless they are very short) must be submitted in writing. Similarly, the minutes written by the secretary each meeting include summaries of discussion and reports, whereas it is my understanding that (unless otherwise permitted by the bylaws) the minutes should only contain a summary of actions taken. Our chapter bylaws and the bylaws/constitution of both the regional and national components of the fraternity are silent on both issues.

These customs are a result of a general lack of knowledge of Robert's Rules in our chapter, which I intend to fix. However, I am on generally good terms with the other people in the organization, and I want to accomplish this in a way that is as non confrontational as possible. I expect some resistance; after I notified the chairperson of my intended course of action, they let me know that the executive board had some concerns, so I will be meeting with them soon.

In the meantime, my current plan for the next meeting is to bring this matter up by using the motion to suspend the rules, thereby allowing us to continue the way we are used to without major disruption, while at the same time bringing up that the way we conduct business is improper.

My questions are as follows:

1. Am I correct in my reading of Robert's Rules that the two customs I mentioned violate Robert's Rules?
2. Is the course of action I intend on taking acceptable under the rules?
3. Is it acceptable under Robert's Rules to make one motion to suspend the rules to receive all reports delivered extemporaneously for a particular meeting?
4. Is there a better course of action I can take to achieve my goals?

 

[Richard Brown]

52 minutes ago, Eli Zupke said:

The custom for the local chapter of my fraternity has been for officers and committee chairmen to deliver their reports to the assembly extemporaneously. It is my understanding that this violates the requirement in Robert's Rules that all reports (unless they are very short) must be submitted in writing. Similarly, the minutes written by the secretary each meeting include summaries of discussion and reports, whereas it is my understanding that (unless otherwise permitted by the bylaws) the minutes should only contain a summary of actions taken. Our chapter bylaws and the bylaws/constitution of both the regional and national components of the fraternity are silent on both issues.

These customs are a result of a general lack of knowledge of Robert's Rules in our chapter, which I intend to fix. However, I am on generally good terms with the other people in the organization, and I want to accomplish this in a way that is as non confrontational as possible. I expect some resistance; after I notified the chairperson of my intended course of action, they let me know that the executive board had some concerns, so I will be meeting with them soon.

In the meantime, my current plan for the next meeting is to bring this matter up by using the motion to suspend the rules, thereby allowing us to continue the way we are used to without major disruption, while at the same time bringing up that the way we conduct business is improper.

My questions are as follows:

1. Am I correct in my reading of Robert's Rules that the two customs I mentioned violate Robert's Rules?
2. Is the course of action I intend on taking acceptable under the rules?
3. Is it acceptable under Robert's Rules to make one motion to suspend the rules to receive all reports delivered extemporaneously for a particular meeting?
4. Is there a better course of action I can take to achieve my goals?

 

Responding to your questions:

No 1: Yes, your reading that RONR generally requires written reports is correct.  Your custom violates that provision, although  it is not uncommon.  As to the minutes, it is correct that RONR provides that minutes should normally be a record of what was done, but RONR also expressly provides that the minutes may contain such other matter that the assembly wants included.  See 48:2 - 48:3 (RONR, 12th ed.).

No. 2:  Yes, the course of action you proposed sounds reasonable and permissible.

No. 3:  Yes, a motion to suspend the rules to permit oral reports for an entire meeting would be in order.  If the intent is to do it for more than one meeting, it must be done at each meeting.

No. 4: What you propose sounds reasonable to me, but stay tuned to see if there are other suggestions.

[Atul Kapur]

2 hours ago, Eli Zupke said:

These customs are a result of a general lack of knowledge of Robert's Rules in our chapter, which I intend to fix.
. . . .
4. Is there a better course of action I can take to achieve my goals?

Is your objection solely that it these practices are in conflict with RONR? Or have you identified that these customs are causing a problem for your fraternity?

If these customs are not causing a problem, then perhaps the "friendliest" way to resolve this is to normalize these customs by proposing special rules of order that explicitly codify your current practices. Remember that if there is a discrepancy between the rule and the current practice, either may be changed to resolve the discrepancy.

Both of the practices you mention have the potential to cause significant problems, even if that is not the case now. But I suspect that your main hurdle in trying to change the practice will be to explain that to the rest of the membership, many of whom may believe that "it's not broken" and not see the need to fix things.

[Josh Martin]

19 hours ago, Eli Zupke said:

It is my understanding that this violates the requirement in Robert's Rules that all reports (unless they are very short) must be submitted in writing.

I would add that there is a little more to it than that. In addition to simply being brief, reports may only be given orally in very specific circumstances. See RONR (12th ed.) 51:60-62.

19 hours ago, Eli Zupke said:

Similarly, the minutes written by the secretary each meeting include summaries of discussion and reports, whereas it is my understanding that (unless otherwise permitted by the bylaws) the minutes should only contain a summary of actions taken.

A special rule of order would also be sufficient, but this is otherwise correct.

19 hours ago, Eli Zupke said:

My questions are as follows:

1. Am I correct in my reading of Robert's Rules that the two customs I mentioned violate Robert's Rules?
2. Is the course of action I intend on taking acceptable under the rules?
3. Is it acceptable under Robert's Rules to make one motion to suspend the rules to receive all reports delivered extemporaneously for a particular meeting?
4. Is there a better course of action I can take to achieve my goals?

1-3. Yes.

4. It would seem preferable to adopt a special rule of order on the subject, so that this rule is in effect for all meetings rather than a particular meeting.

I also do not think it would be desirable to permit all reports to be delivered extemporaneously. It seems plausible enough to permit officer reports to be delivered in this manner, if that is the assembly's preference, since the report of an officer is the report of a single person. A report of a committee, however, is supposed to include only what is agreed to by the committee by majority vote, so it is somewhat problematic to permit such reports to be delivered extemporaneously. In the alternative, I think it should be made clear that reports which are given extemporaneously are the report of the committee chairman and not the report of the committee.

In addition, I would suggest that the custom in regard to the minutes should be corrected as soon as possible. If the organization desires to keep the summaries of oral reports, it would be advisable to keep them in a separate document from the minutes.