Robert's Rules for i3

This is the draftiest draft page ever, not actual policy (yet). Basically just a bunch of barely coherent ramblings and reference material. It has also been suggested that it gets a snarkier name, but I can't think of one right now. Will happily redirect for additional snark points

Applying Robert's Rules of Order to i3 Meetings and General Decision-Making

The goal of this page is to eventually be an explanation of how Robert's Rules are applied at i3 meetings as well as how they are incorporated into discussions/proposals on the mailing list, on slack, or by committees/discussion groups/Tiger Team Strike Forces. This should be enough for anyone with knowledge of Robert's Rules to successfully link different parts of RR with the corresponding way that i3 implements things, and to make i3's cultural norms consistent with our Bylaws. It is also intended to be a handbook for the chair of a meeting.

I think this page would be voted on by the membership at some point to be the "official" representation of RR at i3, but I'm not sure how edits to the page would be handled.

Relation to Bylaws

Conduct of Meetings (Members) "Meetings shall be governed by Robert's Rules of Order, as such rules may be revised from time to time, insofar as such rules are not inconsistent with or in conflict with the articles of incorporation, these bylaws, or with provisions of law."

Conduct of Meetings (Directors "Meetings shall be governed by Robert's Rules of Order, insofar as such rules are not inconsistent with or in conflict with the articles of incorporation, these bylaws, or with provisions of law."

This sounds to me like an amended version of Robert's Rules (this page) is allowed to be used at member meetings, with no changes to the Bylaws. However for board meetings we are stuck with using the complete formal RR unless we amend the Bylaws so that the RR language is the same for both.

There are also other important bits in the Bylaws, like quorum, committees, special meetings, majority rules, etc. Quotes from the bylaws that are relevant to meetings should go here so that the whole process can be captured in a generally official sense. If the bylaws are changed this page will need to be changed as well, but that happens like once every 5 years so it should be pretty stable.

Existing i3 wiki pages

• Setting up a vote (Secretary Page)

• Running regular member meetings (Secretary Page)

(Apparently when you're a secretary everything looks like a secretary duty - these should absolutely be the chair's responsibility to know, not the secretary, so all of that content should be scooted to this page.)

• HOWTO_Propose_rule/policy/procedure_changes

This was a good thought, but ultimately ended up a stub page, with more content going on the secretary's page. Should become a redirect to this page, or a subsection of this page, perhaps, or at least match up with the eventual content of this page.

• HOWTO_Add_a_Topic_to_Meeting_Minutes_on_the_Wiki

This page is more about how to actually add to the wiki, but tangentially related so should be consistent

Executing Robert's Rules for i3

Not amendments to Robert's Rules, just ways to execute them to the letter in ways that match how i3 works or improves how i3 works

• Consensus vs. Voting: If the meeting is in obvious agreement (which is honestly most cases) The chair can say “If there is no objection, we will adopt the motion to…” Then wait for any objections. Then say, “Hearing no objections, (state the motion) is adopted.” If a member objects, first ask for debate, then vote and then announce the vote.
  • This would be useful for things like calling the meeting to order/adjourning, taking a break, tabling motions, etc. Not totally sure how it would be recorded in the minutes though.

• Not counting votes: The default for Robert's rules is voice voting, which doesn't by default require counting the votes. This could reduce time spent in meetings waiting for people to record their votes (virtual meetings moreso).
  • If you want to verify voice votes with a count, you can say " I call for a division"
  • The current proposal template needs to have the vote count fields made optional for this to work

• Consent agenda: Items that don't need to be voted on or discussed. This would allow records of various small decisions that have been made, and if people want to discuss them, they can move an item from the consent agenda to New Business. This relies on having items on the agenda prior to the meeting. Also in other meeting procedures like MIBS

Amending Robert's Rules for i3

• Main motions: Main motions in RR require a mover and a seconder to even bring up a topic for discussion. For i3, Main Motions could happen automatically for any item that's added to the Agenda beforehand. This would cut down on the amount of parliamentary procedure that happens at meetings and make adding a topic more accessible for members. Motions could still be tabled if no one actually wants to talk about them. Prior notice is a key part of this.

• Gavel taps: Current president has requested a sound board made entirely of water fowl noises to represent gavel taps signifying different things. Specifically duck farts.

• Good lord, add to me. This is based on a couple really bad youtube videos on RR, one of which was for a kids 4H club...