The orderly conduct of a business meeting requires careful, precise, and generally understood rules. Robert’s Rules of Order has been used and refined, over a very long period, by many groups and CBOQ has adopted it as the basis for the conduct of business, with some modifications and additions. The General Operating By-Law contains some rules that are specific to Meetings of Members and the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations Act (CNCA) also places some constraints on the way we conduct our business meetings. All the provisions in Robert’s apply to CBOQ business meetings unless CNCA, the By-Law, or this document has a contrary provision. This document contains those additional rules that, in principle, apply to all business meetings: Meetings of Members, the CBOQ Board, and any Committee. For a meeting as large as a Meeting of Members, closely following all the relevant rules is important to avoid confusion and unfairness. In practice, if there are no objections, the Board or a Committee may proceed less formally.

Note that in the following “member” (without a capital) refers to any person entitled to participate in a business meeting and “assembly” (without a capital) refers to the individuals participating in a meeting, acting collectively. These are standard procedural terms; it is unfortunate that the words (with capitals) have specific, very different, meanings for us. (In CBOQ a “Member” is a church or Association in CBOQ, and “Assembly” refers to the Annual Assembly at which the Annual Meeting of Members takes place.)

Note also that the definitions in the General Operating By-Law for “meeting” and “session” are the reverse of those given in Robert’s. In applying the rest of Robert’s to our business meetings, the appropriate substitution should be made. For example, where Robert’s says, “a question cannot be postponed beyond the end of the present session” we will interpret that as, “a question cannot be postponed beyond the end of the present meeting.”

• All main motions and amendments must be presented in writing. CNCA requires that member proposals be submitted in advance and specifies the time period for their submission.
• The mover and seconder of a motion must be delegates from different Members.
• No member shall speak more than once to any question.
• No member shall speak to a question for more than five minutes without leave of the assembly. This time limit may be reduced by the Board, in advance of a Meeting of Members, for that Meeting or for a portion of it, if it is anticipated that there will otherwise be inadequate time for debate.
• If a motion is not printed as part of the agenda and is not being displayed, a member may require the motion under discussion to be read at any time during the debate but not so as to interrupt a member while speaking.
• After the chair commences to take a vote, no member shall speak to or present another motion until the vote has been taken on the motion.
• The agenda for a meeting may specify the time allowed for an item of business. When that time expires, the chair will close discussion as soon as the current speaker finishes speaking and call the vote on the main motion and any pending subsidiary motions (such as amendments).
• The Chair is responsible for the orderly conduct of business and for deciding points of order, but has the liberty to consult as needed, prior to making a decision, and may appoint an honorary parliamentarian to provide such assistance.