RONR's Seven Rules for Small Boards and Committees

HOW ONE MEETING CHANGED HENRY MARTYN ROBERT’S LIFE

The catalyst for the creation of RONR occurred during the second year of the Civil War. Robert, a Union Army officer, was in the audience at a crucial community meeting in New Bedford, Massachusetts. The purpose of the meeting was to devise a strategy to protect the city from an impending Confederate naval attack. Rob Henry Martyn Robert was a graduate of West Point. Others at the meeting knew this. Without notice, they drafted him out of the audience to chair the meeting. He was no greenhorn. He came from academic roots. His father, Joseph Thomas Robert, was a physician, minister, and educator who became the first president of the Augusta Institute, later relocated to Atlanta and renamed Morehouse College. 

Robert later wrote, “one can scarcely have had much experience in deliberative meetings of Christians without realizing that the best of men, having wills of their own, are liable to attempt to carry out their own views without paying sufficient respect to the rights of their opponents.” He explored various parliamentary procedures and found them useless at best, ridiculous at worst.

This started him on a 13-year search. The dividend, separating the chaff from the wheat, was a 125-page first edition with a press run of 4,000 copies. These were his guidelines for productive meetings. He titled his first edition, Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies. His printer added the words, “Robert’s Rules of Order.” Divided into two parts, the first part focused on “Rules of Order;” the second—including the section that I believe is often overlooked--on “Organization and Conduct of Business.”

In 2021, Vanderbilt University Professor Christopher P. Loss published “Robert’s Rules of Order and Why It Matters for Colleges and Universities Today.” It includes the reprinting Robert’s first edition. Loss summarizes his belief, “why it matters,” providing evidence: “…this was a tumultuous time much like our own…” Robert’s book is recognized today as the definitive guide for meeting management and organizational development in the United States and throughout the English-speaking world. 

Much like democracy itself, RONR has been under attack for many years. One book that takes potshots is, “Roberta’s Rules of Order,” written not by a Roberta but by Allice Collier Cochran. The existence of “Roberta’s Rules,” is not our greatest concern; it is the fact that only informally in extracurricular activities like student government do American schools teach this subject. There is no approved curriculum. Where RONR pops up, those served are typically an elite clique. Instruction is separate and unequal. Teachers serving as advisors are unfamiliar with the book written by Dr. Martha Haun and me, “Robert’s Rules for Kids and Big Kids…A Guide to Teaching Children of All Ages the Basics of Parliamentary Procedure,” or any other. They learn or (mis)learn following the practices of others.

COMMITTEE MEETINGS

When Robert began chairing the 14-hour town meeting, he was likely oblivious to the one or more committee meetings that led to it. At it (or them) the people preparing for the larger meeting must have discussed the location, date, time, agenda, and publicity. Because it’s natural to do so, the people (a committee though they didn’t call it that at the time) were no doubt following what became committee rules. When Robert journeyed west from Massachusetts to California, and to Oregon with what he thought were eyes wide open, he walked into one meeting after another, each time re-experiencing the chaos of New Bedford. No doubt, he did not see the essential precursor to large meetings, committee meetings, and the need for a different set of rules governing discussion. Eventually he did, but by then—as we have seen--the dye was cast.

HOW IT CAN IMPROVE MEETINGS AND REDUCE LONELINESS AND ISOLATION

Numerous authoritative studies about meetings in the United States indicate that bad meetings have produced a significant societal problem, an epidemic: loneliness and isolation. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, sounded an alarm. His study produced “A National Strategy to Advance Social Connection.” The study overlooks RONR. This is not his fault. It is the way the United States’ educational system operates. It is likely not in his consciousness.

His study says the harm from loneliness and isolation is as great as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Research must explore the effect of the use of rules for small boards and committees. I believe that they will play a significant role in producing a culture of connection. When meetings are procedurally good and have meaningful topics, people will attend. One dividend will be the reduction in loneliness and isolation. Best experiences occur when participants know how to use the rules properly.

In January of 2025, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) released a groundbreaking study produced by Harvard and the U.S. Department of Treasury. It explored the transformative power of mentorship in shaping young people's educational, economic, and social trajectories. I believe similar research, if applied to RONR, would identify a significant role in the eradication of loneliness and isolation.