Check out the latest blog, "Efficient Meetings with Robert's Rules"

Jason Robinson

At Sport Law our team provides exceptional meeting support to sport organizations of all sizes. These include member, board, or committee meetings and in-person, virtual, or hybrid. Our goal is to help ensure that meetings meet the necessary legal, procedural, and moral standards while being as efficient as possible.

We have written several meeting-related blogs, hosted a meeting webinar series, and have created a guide related to meeting support and electronic voting. These channels help identify the various tools and services that Sport Law can offer to help improve your meetings.

One key tool that helps to effectively govern meetings is a parliamentary authority, which is a book that defines your organization’s method for conducting meetings. Robert’s Rules of Order, aka Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), is the most commonly used parliamentary authority. The most current edition of RONR is the 12th Edition (2020). This book is 714 pages long and for many, is too complicated or time-consuming to read and understand. As such, there are various short-form versions that have been posted on the internet and there is also a RONR ‘In Brief’ book which is a shorter and more user-friendly edition that prioritizes the rules most often needed at meetings.

While there are various ‘cheat sheets’ of RONR to be found online, many are outdated or incomplete.  We have therefore created our own version that we believe will support you in running effective meetings that align with RONR.  This document outlines the six key principles of a meeting, the Chair’s primary responsibilities, tips for presiding, the steps to process a motion, and the various types of motions.  Also included is a condensed guide on how to process common motions, as per RONR.  The document can be found here:

Efficient Meetings with Robert’s Rules

We hope that you will find this tool helpful in guiding your meetings. It is important to understand that this document reflects RONR and not other parliamentary authorities.  If your defined parliamentary authority is different from RONR (i.e. Standard Code, Bourinot’s Rules of Order, Lochrie’s Meeting Procedures) then please ensure that you follow that authority.

A reminder that this is a summary, and does not represent the entirety of the rules in RONR or any of its exceptions. It should not be considered as a replacement to RONR.

Your governing documents and applicable legislation take priority over RONR.  This means that if RONR ever conflicts with those written authorities, the rule or procedure that takes precedence over RONR must be followed.

The assistance of a parliamentarian, who is an advanced expert on RONR and meeting procedures, is always recommended, particularly when your meeting rules and procedures are not straightforward, or the meeting includes challenging or contentious issues. A parliamentarian will help provide a proper interpretation of your parliamentary authority (in balance with those organizational rules) both in advance of the meeting and during the meeting.

To ensure effective and efficient meetings, please contact us at hello@sportlaw.ca to connect with one of our experts.