Robert's Rules
of Order
by
Michael N. Geselowitz
NASCAR. UFOs. Chess. Comedic
acting. At first glance, these four subjects have little in
common. But one thread binds them
together. Before Bill Lester became the first African-American
to race on the NASCAR circuit ... before Philip Klass became the
most famous debunker of UFO claims ... before Mikhail Botvinnik achieved the title of world chess champion ... before
Rowan Atkinson became “Mr. Bean” ... each completed their
training as an electrical engineer. Clearly, electrical
engineering training is good preparation for all aspects of life
and can lead to achievement
in a variety of fields.
U.S. General Henry Martyn Robert
(pictured above) has gone down in history as the man who
standardized parliamentary procedure in the United States. Along with countless other membership organizations across
the country, the IEEE couldn't get through a meeting without a trusted copy
of Robert’s Rules of Order in the hands of the
parliamentarian. But, before he penned his Rules, Robert
began his career as a engineer.
Robert was born 2 May 1837 on his
grandfather’s slave plantation in a small town near Robertville,
S.C. (30 miles north of Savannah, Ga.). He
first exhibited his technical promise in Ohio, where his
parents had relocated around his second birthday. Young Robert
was precocious and opportunistic, and at age 15 received a
coveted appointment to West Point to study military engineering.
Upon his graduation in 1857, he was not only commissioned as an
officer, but also invited to stay on as an assistant professor of
natural philosophy, astronomy and practical military
engineering. However, his engineering talents were soon needed
elsewhere.
Assigned to the Army Corps of
Engineers, in 1858 he led a detachment to the isthmus of Panama
to explore the possibilities for a canal. In 1859, he built a
fort on San Juan Island to protect the northwest United States
from the British in British Columbia (the border with Canada had
not yet been settled). In 1861, he helped to build the defenses
of Washington, D.C., during the Civil War. From there he was posted
to Philadelphia, and then to New Bedford, Mass. It was
in New Bedford that he was first asked to preside over a church
meeting; and it was here he first observed that, during the
discussion of contentious subjects, meeting decorum tended to
break down. And when it came time to make decisions, each member
referred, either implicitly or explicitly, to different rules of
order, depending on their personal background and geographic
origin. Those different understandings, Farrell noted, often
clashed.
In 1867, he was promoted to major
and posted to San Francisco as the Corps’ chief engineer in the
region. His position made him prominent in the community, and he
became a board member of both the San Francisco YMCA and the
First Baptist Church, among other organizations. He decided to
try to congeal his thoughts about volunteer meetings on paper
and put them into action. Robert began compiling a 16-page rules
of order guide,
which he intended for use with the various organizations
to which he and his wife belonged.
Due to a hectic schedule, Robert
did not complete the manuscript that became the Rules of
Order until the winter of 1874. Transferred to Wisconsin
that year, the harsh weather prevented the Corps from carrying
out several of its initiatives, giving Robert more time to work
on his own project. When it was completed he shopped it to
publishers, but none were interested. Some felt there was no
need for such a book, while others felt there was need, but that
such a book could only come from a lawyer or legislator —
certainly not an engineer or a military man. So,
Robert self-published and his book became a publishing and
cultural phenomenon, as well as a piece of history.
In hindsight, many have suggested
that it was exactly his background in military discipline
that led Robert to his famous work. However, in the military one
follows a strict hierarchy of command. Methods for raising
objections, for overruling the chair and so forth, are
intentionally omitted from military protocol. Rather, if one
looks closely at Robert’s Rules of Order — its structure,
its analytical approach, its emphasis on practical solutions —
one could argue more compellingly that his engineering training
was the real origin of his rules.
As its name suggests, the work’s
central theme was clear: order. Looking back on the work that
defined his life, Robert told an audience in 1916, “In these
days, nearly everyone belongs to some kind of club or society,
and if one proposes to take an active part in the meetings, one
is obliged to make motions, and therefore should know enough
about them to avoid being out of order.” Robert's ideas about order
and proper procedure have become inculcate endemic in American society
—
even the United States Congress abides by Robert’s Rules.
So the next time you are at a meeting, where you abide by the idea that
only one person can speak at a time, or that only one issue can be
addressed at that particular moment, remember that a fellow
engineer theorized and documented the laws that govern these discussions.
E-mail
this page
