This is the first installment of a 4-part series written specifically for: “…anyone who is a Messenger to the annual meeting of the California Southern Baptist Convention, the local association, or local Church meetings in the CSBC.”
Not knowing Parliamentary Procedures can sometimes be frustrating and embarrassing, to say the least. The following information is meant to provide you with basic procedure when conducting or participating in a called meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order (currently the 12th Edition).
- Procedures for Conducting a Meeting:
- Starting a meeting: “To start a meeting, the chairperson of the meeting must call the meeting to order saying, ‘the meeting will come to order’; once the chairperson calls the meeting to order, the meeting can begin on the order of business; this order is usually:
- Reading and approval of minutes
- Reports of officers, boards, and committees
- Reports of special committees, or committees appointed to exist for a specific task
- Special orders, or business that has a special priority, such as committee reports left over from the previous meeting
- Unfinished business and general orders, or business left over from the previous meeting
- New business
- Meeting business is usually handled with motions; to bring a motion before the messengers, the steps are:
- The messenger must be recognized by the chairperson, usually standing at a microphone, and being recognized
- He/she then makes the motion by saying, “I move to . . .”
- Another messenger seconds the motion, saying, “Seconded”
- The chair repeats the motion, at this time. The motion is pending, or open to discussion
- Motions usually made at the beginning of meetings are:
- Call for the orders of the day, in which the messengers adopt its agenda or order of business
- Fix the time to which to adjourn, where the messengers decide when the meeting will end and sets a time for the next meeting
- Starting a meeting: “To start a meeting, the chairperson of the meeting must call the meeting to order saying, ‘the meeting will come to order’; once the chairperson calls the meeting to order, the meeting can begin on the order of business; this order is usually:
Next time, on “Robert’s Rules…”
Join us in the next article, where we will cover proper decorum for motions and ‘10 easy steps for
making motions.’
Please send questions or comments to ron.harvey@rightclubconsultingcompany.com
Click here for Part 2 – “Robert’s Rules” Procedures for Conducting a Meeting (Main Motions)
Click here for Part 3 – “Roberts Rules” Procedures for Conducting a Meeting (Amendments)
