Parliamentary Procedure and Electronic Publications

Anybody who knows me, knows that I am in favor of having just about everything in electronic format. This especially is true for material related to parliamentary procedure. Having material in electronic format allows you to do much more, more quickly.

For the various groups I work for, I have their bylaws etc. in electronic format. During the meeting, when a question comes up I do not have to shuffle through a lot of paper trying to find the right one and then do a visual search for the material I need. I already have it open on my computer and just do a simple search. I am there, often before the chair asks me, and can give him a quick answer. This makes the meeting move along. In addition, I have developed two programs to help.

The first of these, I have labeled as Motion Charts. With this program, I can show visually, what motions have been proposed, what is the immediate pending question, what motions can be proposed at that point, and what motions directly relating to the immediate pending question can be proposed. I can also put the motion in and keep track of who made it and what the vote on it was. Here are some screen shots from it.



This is not a free program as it took a lot of work to make it. If you are interested in having a copy, I do charge $50 for it. More than once, it has greatly helped a chair by showing him what motions could not be made even though a member was insisting that it was his right to offer an amendment to the main motion even though the motion to Refer was pending. Contact me at ljcbear@gmail.com if you are interested in having a copy.

The other program is called Scripts (yes, I am not very original in naming things). I'll wait for the next blog to describe it.

An important warning. Using electronic documents is not for everybody. There are some people who are just not good at making use of a computer and they should shy away from using electronic documents. These types can do things with paper documents that I can't -- I envy them. But if you are even mildly competent at using a computer, I do believe that making use of one can really improve your productivity.

Across Borders

I have to deal with groups that include many nationalities. The more nationalities, the more interpretations I run into as to what is fair. A group that is mainly North Americans and Japanese is relatively easy to deal with. The groups have different ideas as to what is right but with only two ideas to deal with, you have few unsolvable problems. Now take that same group and add northern Europeans. Diversity has entered in although they do come close on the level of argumentation that is expected. You can work it out if you take time. Time is a key ingredient -- this is not a fast paced operation.

It now can become really rough when you add Mediterranian people to the flux. They are more likely to let their tempers flare and to take that flaring as just an accepted, everyday procedure. What the person in charge or the parliamentarian says and does will vary upon the background of the person.

And Asians, Sub-Asians (Indians, Bengalese, Thais, etc. to the mix and it now more complicated. Simple rules are not simple rules as culture comes into the mix. Common sense is really based on culture and not logic (it actually never was based on logic!!) Now add Africans keeping North and South apart, Australian, Islanders -- oh my gosh, you have a lot of different cultures to deal with. Oh, there are also the interactions between the various cultures just to multiply the parliamentarian's problems.

I hope that this begins to get you thinking of all the different problems that exist in the "real" world.

Handling Disciplinary Issues

Disciplinary issues are hard on every organization that I have seen work on them. They tear at the very soul of the organization as the people involved are ones many have trusted or befriended.

An important thing to remember about any disciplinary action is to keep it confidential and to make sure that it remains confidential. Even if you think the person has done something serious, you have no right to expose their embarrassment to anybody. People have ears so if you talk about the issue to somebody who has the right to know, you need to worry about those who don't have a right to know over hearing you.

Only those involved in the process have the right to all the details. Even some of the members of the organization do not have the right to know if they did not have the right to be involved in the process. If you expose somebody's little secret, you may be in a huge amount of trouble. You may have just ruined somebody's life. If they go after you in court, you may loose big time.

The rule is simple. Keep quiet!!!! You don't have to tell everybody about things; you are under no obligation to pass on information. So don't.

Giving Notice

Some items require notice before the assembly can consider them. Notice (more technically, Previous Notice) means that the members are notified ahead of time that an item will come up before them. This is often done by announcing at a meeting that something will be brought up the next time. If the society is meeting less often than quarterly or if the bylaws require it, the notice is included in the Call for the meeting that is sent to the members.

To count the days for the notice, the day that the notice is sent out is counted but not the day of the meeting. So for a notice that requires ten days and a meeting that is scheduled on the 23rd of the month, notice needs to go out no later than the 13th of the month -- the 13th is counted as day 1 and the 22nd would be day 10. So if the notice was sent on the 14th, it could not be considered on the 23rd; if sent on the 13th, it could be considered on the 23rd.

In counting the days, it is based on "sent" and not on "received". The society has no control over the postal system.

How is the notice sent? By mail unless another way is authorized.

The purpose of notice is to ensure that the members know that some serious topic is coming up at the meeting. Notice is not perfect as you cannot ensure that everybody will receive the notice (some mail gets delayed) or that they will read it either partially or completely.