Managing Challenging Meetings and Demystifying Parliamentary Procedure

This one hour webinar provides sport leaders with insight into managing meeting challenges through helping to demystify parliamentary procedure. Sport organizations sometimes find themselves in challenging situations at their meetings due to passionate debate on a topic, questions on procedure, or simply because they are unsure how to carry out business in an efficient and compliant manner. These situations can occur at Board meetings, annual or special meetings, or within committees. The webinar will serve to provide clarity on the role of the Chair, conflict of interest, and what organizations can and can not do in meeting situations.

The webinar was presented by SLSG’s Kathy Hare and Jason Robinson. Kathy is a member of the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP) and Jason  is a Certified Parliamentarian with the American Institute of the Parliamentarians (AIP). Both Kathy and Jason have chaired and supported a variety of meetings and helped sport organizations navigate the associated hurdles of parliamentary procedure.

Please note: the last question on the webinar was misunderstood and an incorrect answer was provided. The question was ‘If you have someone who is on two Boards (i.e. at a local and provincial level) can they be asked to be excused from a meeting for discussion to take place?’

The correct answer to the question is that in cases where there is a conflict of interest, the member in conflict should remove themselves from any discussion or voting on the motion before the members. As an example, if there is a motion before the Board to raise the membership fees for the organization’s members and a Board member is also on the board of a member organization, they are in conflict and should remove themselves from the discussion and voting. If the conflicted member does not declare a conflict and remove themselves, another Board member can raise the question of conflict of interest with the Chair who could then make the ruling and ask the conflicted member to leave the discussion and voting.