The Square
by Dennis Clark, PPP
National ECW Parliamentarian
At the October 2022 meeting of the NECW Board of Directors, the parliamentarian introduced the first of a series of presentations entitled “Taking the ME out of Meetings.” His contention being that the decline of civility across our land as well as across the globe has, more than ever, impacted behavior of members at meetings of various groups to which they belong. After practicing and teaching the science of parliamentary law for half a century, he has seen an alarming rise in the number of individuals and factions seeking to assert their oft-narrow opinions on the remainder of the members of a society in a manner inconducive to the well-being, harmony, perhaps even the existence of that association.
It is his contention that this behavior is reflective of society as a whole. The day the presentation was made to the Board in Manchester, New Hampshire, news came of an attempt on the life of the husband of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Pelosi, at the couple’s home in California. That same night there was a murder on the main street of Manchester, something we are told is a rarity in this area. As we finish this article, news comes from the University of Virginia of the shooting deaths of three students on campus with two more wounded by a fellow student, then two more deaths reported at a college campus in Idaho. Imagine if you can the terror that must be in the back of every parent’s mind about whether they will ever see their child alive again after they leave for school.
It ought not have to be said that these kinds of indecencies do not square with the commonly accepted precepts that a civilized society has long considered to be the norm. General Henry M. Robert (1837-1923), author of Robert’s Rules of Order (1876), said that “Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty.” While individuals may not have a whole lot of control over what goes on out in the streets, they do have the ability to control poor behavior that may occur in meetings at which they attend. That is presuming those meetings are of an organized society that has adopted a set of bylaws, which should include an article naming a parliamentary authority such as the most recent edition of Robert’s Rules of Order, Newly Revised or The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure. Fortunately, parliamentary law provides remedies for dealing with folks who do not know how to behave in public meetings or choose not to do so. Future articles in this column will address how this is correctly done as well as suggest how to prevent problems prior to a meeting.
Perhaps the highest tenet of a democracy is the principle of rule by the majority. At the same time the rights of the minority of the members on a given side of a question must be protected, that is the right to debate the issue in order to sway other members that their view is the better one. If unable to do so they have the right to seek to modify the question (motion) if they can garner a majority vote to so amend. Hence, debate on any debatable motion or the right to attempt to amend a motion being considered by the assembly may only be closed by a two-thirds vote of those voting. Incidentally, it is important to understand what the term “majority” means in parliamentary law. Majority means more than half of those who are present and who actually vote. In other words, those who abstain are not counted in any vote and the chair should, except for a very few exceptions, never call for abstentions.
After nearly half a century of practice and reflection, this parliamentarian has come to understand that knowledge of parliamentary processes ought not be confined to a small number of professionals. Rather, it is the duty and the responsibility of all members of a democratic, pluralistic society to be informed of at least the basic tenets of the science of parliamentary law. This being necessary not only for the protection of their own rights but for the long-term interests of societies to which they have chosen to become members of.
It is a science based on certain fundamentals that are already part of the knowledge base, the moral code and culture of most. Further, they are based on logic and common sense. Among those fundamentals are courtesy toward all others, fairness and equal treatment of all, honesty and transparency in our dealings with others, as well as majority rule while protecting the rights of others as noted above. In short, it amounts simply to following a simple rule that most of us came to recognize early on in life without even having it be taught. We would come to know it as the Golden Rule. It is this parliamentarian’s view that either you get it or you don’t, to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
