Robert's Rules of Order

A Stamp of a Memorial, at Least
Author of 'Robert's Rules of Order' Is Celebrated Subtly

Excerpt:

He was an Army civil engineer who commanded a party exploring a military route from western Canada to Puget Sound, a brigadier general who built up the defenses of Washington and Philadelphia against Johnny Reb invaders and a member of the commission that designed the Galveston sea wall after the island city was swept away by a hurricane. He died in 1923.

This accomplished fellow, a West Point graduate, also had much to do with the shaping of Rock Creek Park, but none of his engineering exploits account for his fame, such as it is. An orderly sort himself, he not only wrested order out of nature's chaos, he also brought order to contentious human nature.

Robert is the man who, even today, keeps meetings of lawmakers, ladies clubs, school boards and corporate directorates from devolving into shouting matches or worse; who keeps PTA meetings and corporate board gatherings calm and orderly (most of the time). He's the man who keeps us mannerly. His rules of order, in DeFord's words, "allow us to make informed decisions but where everybody has equal rights to participate."

"Every parliamentarian has heard stories of meetings that blow up in an awful way," says his grandson, Henry Martyn Robert III of Annapolis. "But it need not be. The rules are the secret."

As Robert the grandson tells the story, the elder Robert was living in New Bedford, Mass., in 1863 and was asked to preside over a meeting to consider the defense of the city during the Civil War.

"He didn't know beans about it [presiding over a meeting], and he found it very embarrassing," Robert III said. "He made up his mind that if he got out of it alive, he would learn something about the subject."

Learning something about parliamentary procedure involved reading a few books and making some notes, which he carried in his wallet for about four years.

When he moved to San Francisco, he encountered a city where prostitution was rife and Chinese laborers brought in to build the railroad were exploited, even chased by dogs for sport. Robert, a Baptist lay leader, was offended.

He joined the YMCA and several newly formed religious groups dedicated to relieving the plight of exploited souls, but he found that the city's motley population had discordant notions about how to conduct meetings. San Francisco needed rules.

When Robert came out with the first version of his rules of order in 1876, he had trouble finding a publisher. Who'd want to read such a book? So he printed up 4,000 copies himself. Since then, Robert III says, it has sold 5 million copies. (He is listed as one of the five authors of the 10th edition.)


Comment: See also: Official site: Robert's Rules of Order

HT: Bikebubba