Roberts Rules of Order, latest Simplified edition.

[Guest Larry Dynes]

Will someone kindly help me understand this?
"All meetings and conventions within the purview hereof shall be governed by Roberts Rules of Order, latest Simplified edition."
I am not finding it here: https://robertsrules.com/books/#books.
 

[Casey239]

Larry -
There are many version of Robert's Rules of Order.  The official version is the one you posted, RONR Newly Revised 12th edition.   However, another book which points to this official version is Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief which is in its 3rd edition.   Here is what I found for you:

Robert's Rules Simplified book by Arthur T. Lewis (thriftbooks.com)

Robert's Rules of Order: A Simplified, Updated Version of the Classic Manual of 9780425116906 | eBay

 

[Rob Elsman]

There is no such book put out by the Roberts Rules Association or the authorship team of Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised, 12th ed.

[Richard Brown]

Agreeing with Mr. Elsman, that is one of the many “knock off books“ pretending to be an official version of Roberts rules of order. The only official current version is “Roberts rules of Order newly revised 12th edition“.  I suggest you try to get your organization to amend it bylaws or special rules of order to specify the correct parliamentary authority.

Edited April 21, 2024 at 02:57 PM by Richard Brown
Typographical correction

[Josh Martin]

On 4/21/2024 at 9:29 AM, Guest Larry Dynes said:

Will someone kindly help me understand this?
"All meetings and conventions within the purview hereof shall be governed by Roberts Rules of Order, latest Simplified edition."
I am not finding it here: https://robertsrules.com/books/#books.

Nor will you find it there. There is no official edition of Robert's Rules of Order with that title. Rather, it appears to be referring to one of the many third party knockoffs out there. These books have proliferated because Robert's Rules of Order is old enough that some of the older editions are now in the public domain. (Most of the third party knockoffs are based on the 4th edition, published in 1915.)

I'm not entirely certain what book your rules are referring to, because I'm not aware of a book with the exact title "Robert's Rules of Order, Simplified Edition." There are several third party knockoffs with both "Robert's Rules of Order" and "Simplified" in the title.

If forced to hazard a guess, I suspect the drafters were referring to Webster's New World Robert's Rules of Order Simplified and Applied, 2nd edition by Robert McConnell, as this is one of the more widespread knockoffs. But they could conceivably be referring to The Modern Edition of Robert's Rules of Order (A Simplified, Updated Version of the Classic Manual of Parliamentary Procedure) by Darwin Patnode; or Robert's Rules Simplified by Arthur Lewis; or Robert's Rules Simplified: Pocket Guide to Rules of Order by an unknown author; or The New Robert's Rules of Order: A Modern and Simplified Version by Mary De Vries; or some other junk that didn't pop up in my Google search.

But since none of the third party knockoffs are very good, I would advise your organization to amend the rules in question to replace this sentence with the following language:

"The rules contained in the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern the Society in all cases to which they are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special rules of order the Society may adopt."

Edited April 21, 2024 at 03:05 PM by Josh Martin

[Guest Larry Dynes]

Thanks to all responding.
I was guessing that the body failed when voting in this bylaw, hopefully they will be able to resolve it in due course.