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Robert’s Rule of Order
My first exposure of Robert’s Rules of Order was in Grade 6. Our teacher, Mrs. Ayling, created a quasi civics class. On the surface, we were an arm of the Canadian Red Cross trying to raise a little money for this charity. So every two weeks, we would have a half hour business meeting to decide on class activities to raise this money. Learning to be charitable was nice, but the real lessons were how to make a motion, how to second a motion, discuss the motion, take a vote, and effect the action of that vote.
Later in high school, our student council conducted our business in a similar way. And we were already trained, thanks to Mrs. Ayling.
Fast forward a few years, and I found myself in the back rooms of party politics. In these meetings, we often used advanced motions from Robert’s Rules of Order. I kind of understood these rules, kind of not. While I was a little lost, I was still happy to be contributing to this part of our society.
I had ambitions of someday becoming an elected politician. But I knew my public speaking skills were not very good. So I joined a local Toastmasters club to improve these skills.
Public speaking is not the only skill learned at Toastmasters. Part of many Toastmaster’s meetings is the business session, which lasts about 20 minutes. Sometimes the club had legitimate business to do, and we used…
