How many bike co-ops out there use Robert's Rules of Order or at least some form of that to run their meetings? It has been in our bylaws for a decade but we have not been using it and our meetings have suffered. We have one member who is questioning the value or even that there are successful organizations that use it effectively. If you have tried it and it did not work well, what has worked better?
Thanks,
Todd The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign
How many bike co-ops out there use Robert's Rules of Order or at least some form of that to run their meetings?
I loosely follow Robert's Rules simply for the sake that it allows me to format the meeting to best stay on topic and provide for a clearer methodology for note taking minutes. I have served on Boards for the better part of ten years that followed these Rules so it's becoming slightly second nature for me.
Cheers, Sam
I’ve worked on several boards of various sizes and they’ve all used Roberts Rules. This structure seems expandable to handle any size project. We also try adding some project management aspects — like each project gets a lead and action items and a close-out. — Jeff Potter / volunteer at Lansing Bike Co-op
On Sep 13, 2019, at 2:35 PM, Todd Spinner tspinner@gmail.com wrote:
How many bike co-ops out there use Robert's Rules of Order or at least some form of that to run their meetings? It has been in our bylaws for a decade but we have not been using it and our meetings have suffered. We have one member who is questioning the value or even that there are successful organizations that use it effectively. If you have tried it and it did not work well, what has worked better?
Thanks,
Todd The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign
-- Todd Spinner
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I would highly recommend this, or your group's adaptation of this, instead:
https://neighborhoodanarchists.org/facilitation
I will admit I had never heard of Robert's Rules of Order, but a quick skim of the Wiki page tells us that the goal in their creation was to adapt the process of U.S. Congress to non-legislative groups. Doesn't seem like something we should be striving for.
On Fri, Sep 13, 2019 at 11:39 AM Jeff Potter jeff@outyourbackdoor.com wrote:
I’ve worked on several boards of various sizes and they’ve all used Roberts Rules. This structure seems expandable to handle any size project. We also try adding some project management aspects — like each project gets a lead and action items and a close-out. — Jeff Potter / volunteer at Lansing Bike Co-op
On Sep 13, 2019, at 2:35 PM, Todd Spinner tspinner@gmail.com wrote:
How many bike co-ops out there use Robert's Rules of Order or at least
some form of that to run their meetings? It has been in our bylaws for a decade but we have not been using it and our meetings have suffered. We have one member who is questioning the value or even that there are successful organizations that use it effectively. If you have tried it and it did not work well, what has worked better?
Thanks,
Todd The Bike Project of Urbana-Champaign
-- Todd Spinner
The ThinkTank mailing List
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http://lists.bikecollectives.org/options.cgi/thethinktank-bikecollectives.or...
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PS: RR is accepted by basically every kind of organization: financial, legal, govt. It has the values of respect, accountability and transparency built in. ...Though, as with anything, it can be gamed. But seeing people work who know the rules, the “language,” is like watching any elaborate game where everybody is using the same rules. It’s astounding how much complicated high level work can be accomplished (and recorded and made available and understandable to the public) using RR’s. I suspect there are billion$ projects being done, with a bunch of different stakeholders, using “simple” ONE HOUR meetings that function like well-honed social machines. …It’s a thrill when everyone involved is ready for a meeting and a meeting goes by the agenda. Pride… Jeff Potter
The AMS Bike Co-op at UBC, while I was there, officially ran meetings by consensus but with Robert's Rules as fallback. The chair of each committee was free to choose whatever structure. We never actually ended up using formal Robert's Rules for any meeting I attended.
The Graduate Student Society at UBC did actually formally use Robert's Rules for their meetings and as Jeff wrote, it was impressive & effective when running properly.
In my mind it's a question of scope and conflict. For small groups and groups which are generally in agreement already, Robert's Rules are not needed and people get lazy about following them. For large groups or groups that have necessarily opposing factions (e.g. government), it's a decent system.
Jean-François
On 2019-09-13 3:03 p.m., Jeff Potter wrote:
PS: RR is accepted by basically every kind of organization: financial, legal, govt. It has the values of respect, accountability and transparency built in. ...Though, as with anything, it can be gamed. But seeing people work who know the rules, the “language,” is like watching any elaborate game where everybody is using the same rules. It’s astounding how much complicated high level work can be accomplished (and recorded and made available and understandable to the public) using RR’s. I suspect there are billion$ projects being done, with a bunch of different stakeholders, using “simple” ONE HOUR meetings that function like well-honed social machines. …It’s a thrill when everyone involved is ready for a meeting and a meeting goes by the agenda. Pride… Jeff Potter ____________________________________
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Dylan Blackie -
Jean-François Caron -
Jeff Potter -
Sam Haraldson -
Todd Spinner