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.

To Follow or Not Follow Parliamentary Procedure

Some people think that following parliamentary procedure wastes time at meetings. I usually find that those people are slowed down as they cannot move their ideas through as others are given the full right of participation. Parliamentary procedure works to give all members a fair chance to participate and to do things based on a majority vote.

Some organizations have a tradition of not following a parliamentarian authority. New people are often left out of the decision making process and the organization is run by a click. The click only lets those who agree with it advance to positions of authority. The organization starts to eat it self apart from the inside as new potential members don't want to be part of the group. Others leave as they never have a chance to present their ideas or to advance.

Groups need to have a fresh perspective coming in or they die of stagnation. Following parliamentary procedure can never guarantee that such freshness will be available. Lack of parliamentary procedure does guarantee that such freshness will never exist.

Changing Procedures

If an organization wants to change some procedure, it had better take a good look at its bylaws. That is often where a change in procedure needs to be made. But many organizations do not want to do that. They think that they can just decide on the change and let it go at that. What do I mean? below is an example.
Imagine that an organization wants to add a permanent committee to handle publicity. They have never done this before. Publicity had been handled informally but members were finding that this was not working. So they pass a resolution creating the committee and say that it is permanent.
One member looks at the bylaws and sees that there is a provision for certain standing committees and the bylaws are silent about adding new standing committees. This member points out that it is improper to establish a standing (permanent) committee for publicity. This member is right. Since there is a definite list of standing committees, a new one can only be created by adding to the list in the bylaws -- amending the bylaws to do so.
Even if a majority want the committee to be a standing one, they have to follow the procedures in their bylaws to amend them. Caution in making changes is important. You need to follow the rules as they are the rules that your society adopted.
Hope this helps.

Web Site

My web site, where there is a lot of study material for Parliamentary Procedure, is www.parliamentarycorner.com.

Just a start

I have been involved in Parliamentary Procedure for several years. Yeah, I capitalize it even though it does not need to be so. Parliamentary Procedure is important, I firmly believe, because it helps people learn how to interact productively with others without one person or one small set of people being dominate. Parliamentary Procedure is based on all being equal and all having a fair chance to participate in a society. It only works if the society wants to make it work. That is probably enough for this post.