[OSList] open space in roberts rules of order?

[Justin T. Sampson]

Ah! Why is this the day I left my copy of *Robert's Rules* at home? I
usually have it next to my desk at the office, and have never needed to
refer to it before. :)

I'm pretty sure that a committee of the whole does have a chairperson; I
think that the phrase "the presiding officer remains in the chair" for
*quasi-committee
of the whole* simply means that in a proper *committee of the
whole*someone else steps in as chairperson.

However, I think you're on the right track. Remember that every
organization that uses *Robert's Rules* has its own rules and traditions
added on. Captain Robert just provided a container. I see his *Rules* as an
useful safety-valve: If a participant thinks things are going unfairly,
there's a procedure to raise an objection, and so forth.

If you dig back in the archives you'll see that I played with a slightly
inverted form of this idea (just look for one of my own most recent
messages, in which I gave a link to an older conversation). As chair of an
organization, I facilitated a meeting in Open Space and then simply offered
a *Robert's Rules*-governed session myself in the last time slot just in
case anything came up needing formal approval of the body.

I'm sure doing it as you suggest would work great, as well. The motion to
create a committee of the whole could simply be altered to create an open
space instead. Follow the proper voting and objection procedures to approve
the motion, and set an end-time at which *Robert's Rules* will be brought
back into play to wrap up the meeting.

By the way, I've read that Captain Robert himself was an expert
facilitator. Votes in his meetings were rarely contentious and often
unanimous, because he gave sufficient space for dialogue before even
considering voting. Food for thought!

Cheers,
Justin


On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 12:37 PM, Michael Herman
<michael at michaelherman.com>wrote:

> hello all,
>
> the phrase "committee of the whole" came up in a client conversation
> today.  i got curious and went to wikipedia.  turns out it's a formal
> process used in US senate and house and other governing bodies around the
> world.  and then there is this at the end of the article...
>
> *Robert's Rules of Order states that the committee of the whole is
> suitable to large assemblies. The procedure is invoked by a motion to
> commit to the committee of the whole, or simply to go into a committee of
> the whole. The only motions in order in a committee of the whole are those
> to adopt a proposal for inclusion in the committee's report; to amend; to
> "rise and report"; as well as certain incidental motions and requests.
>
> Variants of the committee of the whole are the quasi committee of the
> whole and to consider informally. The difference between a committee of the
> whole and a quasi committee of the whole is that in the latter, the
> presiding officer of the assembly remains in the chair and presides. Informal
> consideration simply removes the normal limitations on the number of
> times members can speak in debate.[3]
>
> The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure rejects both the committee of
> the whole and quasi committee of the whole procedures as being outdated,
> and instead recommends the motion to consider informally in their place.*
>
> ...so it seems to me that much or all of what happens in open space is
> actually allowed for in Robert's Rules of Order, even if there isn't much
> of a "how to" for it.  since in the quasi-committee of the whole, the
> presiding officer stays in the chair and presides, it seems that in the
> other, there is no chair.  nobody's presiding, nobody's in charge!?  So for
> all of us who still run into these questions about "structure" ...just tell
> them that a mechanism for opening space is actually written into robert's
> rules!?  ...and i guess that would make breakout sessoins "committees of
> the some."???
>
> can anyone else say more about this phrase and/or mechanism?
>
> m
>
> --
>
> Michael Herman
> Michael Herman Associates
> 312-280-7838 (mobile)
>
> http://MichaelHerman.com
> http://ManorNeighbors.com
> http://OpenSpaceWorld.org
>
>
>
>
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