5.D. PRSR 07-12-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Working Rules for Meetings Getting down to business, and doing it D o you have members that carry on side-conversations during a board or council meeting? Do you have members that "hog" the discus- siun? Insult each other? Interrupt each other? Are your meetings too long? Do you have members that talk with the press on executive session matters? Do you want the public com- ment at your meetings, but are afraid it will get out of hand? Do you have agendas that grow topsy Curvy? Agendas that you never get through? Do you £nd yourself in- undated with petitions to reconsider votes[aken? If you answered "yes" to any of the above, you might want to consider adopting some working rules for your meetings. Not only will they go a long way toward ensuring that people are treated equally and fairly during the meeting, they wilt also foster stability not to mention productivity. All of which is to say, with a set of ground rules to guide your meetings officials will not be driven from office by a sense of chaos or a lack of civil- ity, and you will be able to run what is known as an effective meeting. Which is to say, you will be able to get down to [he business of doing business, which is what you were elected to do. This article looks at two types of ground or working rules: those that are primarily "behavioral" and chose that are primarily "procedural". It draws mostly on the work done by Pamela Plumb, a former Portland city councilor and mayor turned facilita- tor and trainer, and Dee Kelsey, the author of material used in MMA's Governing Skills Project. (see sidebar) NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH ROBERT'S RULES It should be stated at the outset that the kind of ground or working rules described in this article are no[ to be confused with Robert's Rules of Order, the classic guide to proper meeting procedure that has been with us for more than 12C years. Robert's Rules, in its 9th edition, takes some 700 pages to spell out proper meeting procedures. The paperback version of the book sells for $15. While the rules described in this article have the same intent as Robert's Rules -the fair and orderly conduct of a meeting -they are dif- ferent in that they deal with day-to- day situations, germane to local gov- ernment. And not only are they more reader-friendly and accessible than Robert's 700 pages of rules, they in- clude rules pertaining to proper be- havior as well as to proper procedure. And last but not least, they, espe- cially the behavioral ground rules, differ from Robert's Rules in that there is a sense of "ownership" by those using them in that they have been drafted and adopted by those who use them. But none of this implies that Robert's Rules should not be used as a template for your own customized ground or working rules, especially when it comes to the making, debat- ingand adoption of motions. BEHAVIORAL GROUND RULES As Pam Plumb sees it, [he kind of ground rules that she specializes in, in both her training sessions and in the soon-to-be-published book, "Great Meetings" (see sidebar), co- By )o Josephson, Staff Writer authored with Dee Kelsey, focus on relationships between board or coun- cil members. "They are the rules that say we ere going to treat each other and [he pub- lic with respect and have the public treat us with respect. They are the rules that are based on the belief that everyone involved in a meeting should be treated fairly and equally," says Plumb. They are the rules [hat say we are going to debate ideas and not people, not interrupt each other, and not have side conversations, to name just a few. But they are also the kind of rules that people sometimes `aoandon in the heat of discussion", say the two in their book. That's why i[ is important to write them down , as a reminder to what you have agreed to in "quieter" times. THE PROCESS But we are getting ahead of our- selves. In order to get people to buy into the rules in the first place, [hey must have a sense of what Plumb and Kelsey call "ownership". That is why it is important for each group to discuss and develop its own set of ground rules, says Plumb. As the two see it, the trouble with most ground rules is that they are so vague no one knows exactly what they mean. So it is important to discuss what is acceptable behavior, agree on what you mean by acceptable behav- ior, and put in writing what you mean by acceptable behavior. It's not enough to merely say you will "treat each other with respect." You need to spell out exactly what 16 Mrp~, 1997 MAINE TOWNSMAN