Toward Real Liberty

Professional Parliamentarian and Association Consultant Jacob D. Gerber, CPP-T

Category: Tips & Strategies

Association Membership Step-by-Step

Sorry for the extended break.  I had meant to take a little bit of a break through a particularly busy time, but it ended up being a little longer than I had anticipated. One of my projects during this break, however, is to continue to work on a book idea that I have had for [...]

When Should You Close Nominations For an Election?

Well, if you are the presiding officer, and someone nominates you for a particular office, you probably shouldn’t close nominations before anyone else has a chance to nominate another candidate.  Kind of makes sense, right? Not to everyone: In January at the first meeting of the year, [Stacey Mounce] Arnold presided over the board’s election [...]

To Church Leaders: Read This Concerning Your Meetings

I came across an article entitled “On Process: Finding Ways to Make Progress as a Community” by Neil de Koning that focused on what Christians should strive after in their meetings.  It is so good that I will not make any comment, except to highlight the article’s main points.  Instead, just go read it. On [...]

When Statutory Law Spoils All the Fun…

In an ideal world, all associations would employ both a professional parliamentarian and an attorney.  As I have written about elsewhere, parliamentarians and attorneys take different approaches and work toward different goals.  An attorney’s goal is compliance with statutory law; a parliamentarian’s goal are productive, efficient, and fair meetings and organizational structures. This, of course, [...]

In Case You Have Always Wondered About Committee of the Whole…

This “Nerditorial” has a great explanation. The bottom line is that a Committee of the Whole takes the entire assembly and turns it into one big committee.  This means that everyone can speak as many times as they wish, but the final decision arrived at during the deliberation of the Committee of the Whole is [...]

Should You Follow Robert's Rules or Your Own Customs?

It is quite common for associations, boards, and committees to run things by custom (“This is how we have always done it!”) rather than by the rules.  Generally, this really isn’t a big deal, and only the nit-pickiest parliamentarian would say anything about it. Every once in awhile, however, it becomes a problem, such as [...]

Ruling: The Chairman CANNOT Vote Twice

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about a local election where the temporary chairman had voted twice in order to break the tie and to push his favorite candidate into the lead.  The Connecticut State Democratic Party ruled that it was not legal for the chairman to vote twice, and ordered another election: The [...]

How Should Churches Deal with Problem Members?

All organizations struggle with how exactly to deal with “problem” members—those who always seem to oppose change no matter how badly it may be needed; those who “debate” by threatening and complaining; and, most frustratingly, those who command just enough votes to impose their will upon the organization. For churches, this kind of situation only [...]

Debate Decorum — One Board's Special Rules of Order

The Greenport Village Board (New York) voted to adopt a special rule of order that specified the exact steps they would take if an audience or fellow board member interrupted someone speaking, and then refused to come to order: Stricter Order The new motion states that further refusal to come back into order will result [...]

How a Church Should NOT Deal with Bad Bylaws

In many ways, the 9Marks organization commands a great deal of my respect. For those who might be unfamiliar with  them, 9Marks works to provide churches with resources to reform their ministries toward the the kind of ministry that the Scriptures represent. The “Marks” refer to the nine areas that healthy churches must work ceaselessly [...]

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