Delegate Tips: Q&A

So say you’re a delegate, and you’re pretty frustrated because you feel like all you do at annual meetings is sit and listen to presentations given by the board and your council leadership.  You have complained many times about the lack of delegate input but to no avail.  Q&A sessions, if you even have one, are short and are cut off due to “running out of time.”  You might even have to submit your questions ahead of time.  How unfair is that?  What if you have a question about one of the presentations?

Well you can do something about it!  Read through your council’s bylaws (don’t know what those are?) and see if there are procedures in place as to how to submit an item for the annual/delegate meeting agenda.   If not, ask who on the board or what committee sets the agenda.  Send in a formal request stating you’d like to add a 15 minute Q&A to it.  Most agendas are required to be sent out 30 days in advance of the meeting (again, check your bylaws), so you’ll need to get your request in before that time.  Don’t wait until the last second!  If they (whoever “they” are) deny it, argue your case and ask on what grounds or authority.  If they still won’t do it, then pull out your handy copy of Robert’s Rules or the website and follow this lead:

Question:  How can I get an item on the agenda for a meeting?

Answer:  For a proposed agenda to become the official agenda for a meeting, it must be adopted by the assembly at the outset of the meeting. At the time that an agenda is presented for adoption, it is in order for any member to move to amend the proposed agenda by adding any item that the member desires to add, or by proposing any other change.

It is wrong to assume, as many do, that the president “sets the agenda.” It is common for the president to prepare a proposed agenda, but that becomes binding only if it is adopted by the full assembly, perhaps after amendments as just described. [RONR (11th ed.), p. 372, ll. 24-35; see also p. 16 of RONRIB.]

What if the agenda isn’t presented for adoption?  Then make a Point of Order (I’ve always wanted to yell this out) and state that the agenda should be adopted first.  But read through your council’s bylaws to make sure something isn’t already in place about adopting agendas.  Bylaws always overrule what’s in Robert’s Rules.

What if someone tries to cut Q&A short by claiming that the meeting has reached its end?  Then make a motion to extend the meeting XX number of minutes, and make sure you have someone lined up to provide a second.  Your motion will require a 2/3rd majority vote in order to pass.

Don’t know what Robert’s Rules is?  Read through this primer and then go from there.  In order to really know how to work the system, you’ve got to do a little bit of studying and reading.  It’s not fun, but it’s necessary.

If any of the above parliamentary procedure is incorrect, please let me know.