


We spend so much time in meetings as board members, committee members, and staff members… why are we torturing ourselves with antiquated and ill-fitting rules? The truth is, most of us don’t know there is an alternative.

Now you do: Roberta’s Rules of Order by Alice Cochran provides useful tools for any organization.

I flagged nearly every page in Roberta’s and I would strongly encourage folks to pick up their copy today. For now, here are my top 10 favorite take-aways from the publication:

  1. Decision by “consensus” isn’t necessarily what you think it means. Clarify whether your board requires unanimous agreement or informed consent. Look at the different options so you can get clear on what your group means by consensus.
  2. Use simple and written proposals to identify suggestions, questions, and modifications to decisions and discussion items. It helps everyone think through ideas before and during discussing them.
  3. Six decision-making factors include: the size of the group, time/urgency, support (buy-in) needed, shared values, trust, and consensus track record. These factors influence if decisions are made, how they are made, and whether or not the decision-making process will be successful.
  4. Quantify support through straw polls, Gradients of Agreement, and quantifiable measurement through points. There are useful ways to measure support before legally voting on any issue – learn about them!
  5. Develop courtesy guidelines for both in-person and virtual meetings. These are like agreements, group norms, or ground rules. They play a critical role in intentionally setting up the board culture. I love the example of each person has 2 – 3 minutes to speak and then has to let others speak.
  6. There are eight spokes for a successful meeting:
    • Develop an expanded agenda: this includes outcomes and agreements on how decisions will be made.
    • Convene the meeting: This is a good place for participants to sign up for specific responsibilities during the meeting.
    • Help people connect: Use check-ins to help people build healthy working relationships.
    • Provide context: Summarize the previous meeting and identify what else is going to be useful to know before getting into the details.
    • Use a consent agenda: Specifically for routine decisions that don’t need a lot of discussions.
    • Add processes to the content: Use facilitation tools to keep the conversation focused and moving forward.
    • Continue the momentum: End the meeting by capturing tasks that need to accomplish and who is accountable for them.
    • Conclude with reflection: Take a moment to identify what worked well and what can be improved for future meetings.
  7. Sample of meeting summary includes date, purpose, present, decisions, decision-making, follow-up, next meeting agenda items, follow-up action plan.
  8. Cultural differences influence our meetings. If our boards, nonprofits, and work are going to be inclusive, we all need to be thinking about cultural differences and how we adapt to them. Cochran highlights differences in verbal expression, eye contact, body language, and approach to time as particular items to consider for multicultural meetings.
  9. Re-create your bylaws. Cochran provides a list of 30 simple questions to answer in order to re/create your bylaws. You don’t need to put the kitchen sink of operational detail in your bylaws but they can be an important and helpful tool.
  10. Adapt your language to match the organizational culture. For example, would you rather use “work teams” instead of “committees”? Cochran provides entertaining examples of how different organizations have made this work for them.

Lastly, the many resources at the conclusion of the publication are phenomenal. There are wonderful examples that I hope to see more and more organizations using. I think these tools and resources are just what most organizations need to improve their culture and contribution to amazing nonprofits.