Adopting RONR for Board and Council Meetings

[keefe]

I have been a part of a Board of Trustees (BoT) and Church Council (CC) for over ten years. It has always been my understanding that RONR was our parlimentary authority for these two bodies. Our bylaws are silent on any parlimentary authority for any boards, committees, or councils, however, it does state that RONR is the parlimentary authority for all congregational meetings of the Church, so perhaps this is where my understanding came from that it is our authority for BoT and CC meetings.

What has come up is that people are wanting to phone in to meetings or join using WebEx (generically speaking for video conference) and our bylaws make no provision for this. I mentioned that those members would not count towards a quorum because they are not present at the meeting. I have been told by our Chairman that our bylaws only address quorum requirments for congregational meetings of the Church, and he is correct in saying this. He said that the BoT and CC can meet and use apprpriate measures to conduct and do its business as needed. He also stated that formal action can be taken if a quorum is assembled in a manner that the members can be heard and participate in a vote. This all seems resonable but it just seems to open us up to not knowing how meetings are supposed to be ran.

You all know this is a recipe for disaster and leads itself to be very subjective. My question is this, how can I go about encouraging the BoT and CC to adopt RONR as the parlimentary authority?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Edited October 13, 2021 at 05:58 PM by keefe

[Josh Martin]

On 10/13/2021 at 12:55 PM, keefe said:

I have been a part of a Board of Trustees (BoT) and Church Council (CC) for over ten years. It has always been my understanding that RONR was our parlimentary authority for these two bodies. Our bylaws are silent on any parlimentary authority for any boards, committees, or councils, however, it does state that RONR is the parlimentary authority for all congregational meetings of the Church, so perhaps this is where my understanding came from that it is our authority for BoT and CC meetings.

In the long run, it would likely be best to amend the bylaws so it simply provides that RONR is the parliamentary authority for the church, period. That is the general manner in which such a provision is worded and clearly conveys that it is the authority for all of the organization's assemblies and committees. See also https://robertsrules.com/how-to-adopt/.

Of course, this may take some time. The board and council could also adopt RONR as their parliamentary authority by the same vote required to adopt a special rule of order (see again the link above). Further, based upon the past practice on this subject as well as the fact that RONR is the authority for the congregation, I would think RONR could be viewed as highly persuasive by these assemblies.

On 10/13/2021 at 12:55 PM, keefe said:

What has come up is that people are wanting to phone in to meetings or join using WebEx (generically speaking for video conference) and our bylaws make no provision for this. I mentioned that those members would not count towards a quorum because they are not present at the meeting. I have been told by our Chairman that our bylaws only address quorum requirments for congregational meetings of the Church, and he is correct in saying this. He said that the BoT and CC can meet and use apprpriate measures to conduct and do its business as needed. He also stated that formal action can be taken if a quorum is assembled in a manner that the members can be heard and participate in a vote. This all seems resonable but it just seems to open us up to not knowing how meetings are supposed to be ran.

You all know this is a recipe for disaster and leads itself to be very subjective. My question is this, how can I go about encouraging the BoT and CC to adopt RONR as the parlimentary authority?  Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

RONR has provisions on quorum. For groups with a defined membership, quorum is a majority of the organization's members unless otherwise defined. State law may also provide something on the subject of quorum.

In any event, I am certainly in agreement that just making things up as you go along is a disaster waiting to happen and that RONR should be adopted as the parliamentary authority. If the organization wishes to authorize electronic meetings, provisions should be made for this in the bylaws, and appropriate rules should be adopted to support this.

[keefe]

Josh,

Thank you for the reply and the link it is greatly appreciated!