If the thought of chairing a meeting fills you with dread… if your hands turn clammy if they so much as brush against a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order… if, deep down, you genuinely believe that you can’t wield a gavel without the serious possibility of maiming somebody… then you may be ready for this:
On Saturday at 1:10 Dana Dahlstrom and I will be presenting an open-source program we wrote to help people in large formal meetings keep track of what’s going on and what they’re allowed to do, even if they’re not experts in parlimentary procedure. For example, if the meeting is based upon Robert’s Rules, then this software will keep track of what motions are pending and tell the user which motions are currently in order.
This is actually a smashing idea. Rules of order are, after all, algorithms, and computers are famous for being good at them. Congratulations to Bayle Shanks and Dana Dahlstrom for a truly handy piece of software.
That said…
…Having seen my share of challenges to the chair at NDP meetings, and knowing just how fanatical the rules-of-order geeks at those meetings can be (having been one myself)…
…I pity the poor bastard in the chair, facing off against an army of laptop-toting procedure gurus, each equipped with copies of Parliamentary Procedure Helper. This software just might become essential for any chairperson, if only out of a sense of self-preservation.
Actually our prototype application is designed to assist the chair as well as the assembly members. We envision one person sitting next to the chair running the software on a laptop connected to a projector or some other large public display.
The software aims to help the chair by providing a quick reference to common rules such as whether a motion can interrupt a speaker, whether it requires a second, whether it is debatable, and what vote it requires for adoption. Normally the chair has to remember these rules or look them up in a book. The meeting-helper software should indicate many relevant rules at the right time.
Check out our abstract and full paper for more about the motivations, design, and goals of the application.
Very cool. It sounds fabulously useful — at a very immediate, practical level — and long overdue!
Hm. Since I’m quite frequently the “poor bastard in the chair”, I’m both intrigued and terrified.
Miss Vicky: Don’t be terrified! I think you’ll find the paper entitled Software Support for Face-to-Face Parliamentary Procedure quite readable. If you look at it, let me know what you think! I’m eager for feedback and further ideas.