Democratic Rules of Order by Peg Francis

Author:Peg Francis
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781771422956
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 2019-03-07T16:00:00+00:00

Special Committees

Most committees are democratic, but sometimes a nondemocratic committee is formed in which one person has full responsibility, although others may help.

Chairing a Committee Meeting

Ideally, a committee brings to bear upon a subject the combined experience and wisdom of several people. But sometimes well-meaning people talk too much or too forcefully, quite unaware of how much time this wastes and how unfair it is to others. Meetings must be protected from such imbalance. The chair should not allow any member to be overly dominant.

The chair should assist members in sticking to the business at hand. (Socializing can be done before or after the meeting.) Light good humor is great, but should be brief. Replies to divergent opinions should be controlled and not allowed to degenerate into arguments. Facts should be allowed to speak for themselves. A little silence during a meeting—as members ponder a situation—is often the sign of an effective group.

When an idea needs to be written down or a letter produced, most committees find that these are better written and corrected by one or two people and then presented to the whole committee for final review.

In all meetings—of any size—the ideal is for members to seek the best solutions together, as a unit, rather than having sides debate to have their own viewpoints adopted. (True for legislative assemblies too, if only they applied it!)

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