HANDLING EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

October 11-12, 2018

Azalea Hotels and Residences
Baguio City
OUTLINE OF PRESENTATION

1. What are meetings?

• Why conduct meetings?
• Cooperative meetings
• Participants in a meeting
• Essentials of a Good meeting
2. Tools in conducting a meeting
• Basics in Parliamentary Law
• Minutes of the meeting

Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Assembly of cooperative (any organization) members,

directors or officers
To deliberate on matters relevant to the cooperative or
organization.

Why Conduct a meeting”

To decide on a course of action/plan.
To solve a problem.
To submit or receive and discuss reports.
To avoid, anticipate or mitigate a problem.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Session different from Meeting

• Session – a series of meetings held in close succession
(ex. Congress in session)

Managing Meetings
Essentials of a Good Meeting
• Well planned in advance
• Proceeds according to accepted rules of
procedure (House Rules)
• Starts and ends on time with good concrete a
result(s).
Conducting Effective Meetings

Essentials of a Good Meeting (Cont’d)

• Reports and proposals are submitted in advance of the
meeting
• Members attend prepared and with deep interest and
enthusiasm
• Members participate actively
• Meeting is conducted in a friendly, orderly and
business-like manner

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Types of Cooperative Meetings(Cooperative Code)

• General Assembly Meeting (Regular/Special)

• Board Meeting (Regular/Special)
• Elective/appointive Committee Meeting
(Regular/Special)
• Special Meetings called by the CDA
 For reportorial concerns
 Coop fails to hold an Annual General Assembly.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

General Assembly
• Highest policy-making body of a cooperative
• Conducted within ninety (90) days after the close of
fiscal year or as provided by the Coop By-laws

Special General Assembly Meeting

• Called by a majority of the Board of Directors – Motu
Propio
• By the Board upon written request of at least ten per
centum (10%) of the total migs members
• By CDA, upon petition of ten per centum (10%) of all
members, in case the board fails to call a general
assembly meeting.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Board Meetings
• Regular meetings – monthly, unless otherwise
provided by the coop by-laws
• Special Meetings – anytime upon the call of the
President/Chairman, or as prescribed in the by-
laws
No Proxy attendance or voting in board
meetings

Managing Meetings
Guide to Effective Meetings

• Opening Meetings:
Always start on time
>Welcome attendees and thank them
for their time
.Review the agenda at the beginning of each meeting,
giving Board a chance to understand all proposed major
topics.
.Note that a meeting recorder will take minutes
• The Chair should show enthusiasm and high
level of energy at the meeting
• Clarify role(s) in the meeting.
Establishing Ground Rules for Meetings:

Basic ingredients needed for a successful meeting:

• 1. Four powerful ground rules are:
a) participate
b) get focus
c) maintain momentum and
d) reach closure.
(You may want a ground rule about confidentiality.)
Conducting Effective Meetings

Other uses of Gavel

• Series of taps – to restore order

• 1 soft tap – a decision on an important issue has

been made

• 1 short tap follows an announcement of a

recess or adjournment.

Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Powers of the Chairman
• Recognizes the speaker
• Decides the order of the speaking
• Restrains speakers with-in the limits of the rules
• Enforces decorum (proper behavior)
• May declare recess or adjournment at anytime
during the meetings if decorum is not observed
properly
• Decides manner of voting
• Decides points of order and questions of privilege.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Powers of the Chairman
• Informs members about relevant points of order
• Creates and appoints committee on certain cases
• Ejects unruly members from place of meeting

Chair’s “TOOLKIT”
• Meeting agenda
• List of committees and their members
• Copy of Coop Constitution and By-laws, policy manual
and approved resolutions
• House rules/Parliamentary Procedures
• Ball pen, notepad/personal computer

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Duties of the Secretary
• Keeps accurate records of what transpired in
every meeting

• Updates members’ list

• Prepares minutes of the meetings

• Keeps copies of
 Coop Constitution and By-laws
 Minutes of all meetings; agenda
 Policies and Resolutions

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Duties of the Secretary
• Handles correspondence of the cooperative

•Provides the Chairman a list of pending and

potential business before a scheduled meeting;
•Provides the chairman a running sheet of meeting;

•Records all the activities of the meetings for future

reference (example – mover, seconder, vote taken)

•Enter into record all approved motions

Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Minutes
• Official records of all business transacted,
activities undertaken, reports and plans
presented during the meeting.

• Impartial account of the business

accomplished at a specified meeting.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

What Minutes should not include?

• Personal opinion or commentary
• Direct transcription of dialog or conversation
• Discussion of motions
• Disapproved, lost or defeated motions

Maybe recorded in a journal

Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Parliamentary Law
• Originally referred to the customs and rules of
conducting business in the English Parliament

• Parliamentary usages/practices evolved into

organization principles – rules of conduct

• Based on freedom of speech, respect for the dignity

of man, equality and justice for all, majority rule, right
of the minority to be heard – duty to abide by the will
of the majority.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Parliamentary Procedure
• Group of generally accepted rules, precedents and
procedures commonly employed to regulate
proceedings of assemblies or organizations.

• Applied to the practices of conducting meetings

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Why use Parliamentary Rules and

Procedure?
For effective and orderly
functioning of “deliberative
assemblies”

• Imagine Edsa without traffic lights, traffic

enforcers, traffic signs, and vehicles taking traffic
counterflow
Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Why use Parliamentary Rules and

Procedure?
 Practices and strengthens democratic practices

 Promotes and enhances right to speak and be heard

 Promotes and enhances right of suffrage
 Enables cooperatives and assemblies to hold orderly
meetings
 Protects the rights of every member
 Preserves the spirit of harmony within the cooperative.
 Determines, in an orderly manner, the will of the
majority
 Subserves and respects the will of the general assembly
rather than restrain it.
Conducting Effective Meetings

Why use Parliamentary Rules and

Procedure?
“Only one principal or main
motion at a time”
Primary rule in deliberations during meeting.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure
• General membership interest prevails
• Personal and private interest of a member subordinated to
that of the general assembly

• Equality
• Equal right to participate and to be heard

• Singularity of the Subject

• One subject for deliberation at a time

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

• Impartiality and Fairness

• Chairman/Presiding Officer must be impartial

• Will of the majority prevails

• Majority decision is the group's collective decision; must be
followed

• Minority must be protected

• Minority deserves protection but must abide by the
majority decision.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure
• Free discussion
• Total, full and free discussion for or against a
motion, proposal, resolution, or question shall be
allowed
• Every motion adopted must be voted or
decided upon by the body
• No riders, surprises
• Decorum
• No one may speak while another has the floor;
observance of proper courtesy.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings

Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

Democratic in arriving at
a decision, but
dictatorial/compulsory in
implementation
Conducting Effective Meetings

Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

Quorum
• The required number of members who must
be present or in attendance before a
deliberative body/assembly can validly
conduct a meeting.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

How Quorum is determined?

• Coop constitution and by-laws determine

or state the quorum requirement.
• In the absence thereof, general practice of
one half plus one (simple majority) of all
members in good standing.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

What happens if there is no quorum?

• Action taken by the assembly/board/ committee is not
legally binding
• No official business can be transacted
• Any member present may question the chairman on
the absence quorum
• Chairman may adjourn the meeting or reset/postpone
to later time or date

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure
How does a member question a quorum?

• Anytime during the meeting, a member may

call the attention of the Chairman by saying:
“Mr. Chairman, does a quorum
really exist?” or
“Mr. Chairman, do we have a
quorum?”

Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

Motions
A motion is a proposal or
such presented to the
assembly for consideration
as the body may decide to
take.

Managing Meetings
Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

Motions
Basic Principles
 As a rule, all business in the body is
introduced by means of a motion (Generally
stated in the affirmative statement)

 After a motion is stated by the Chair, it

becomes the question before the
house/assembly meeting

Chairman announces that a motion has

been
moved/seconded
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure

Classification of Motions
1. Main Motion

 Motion that presents a question (subject) to the

assembly/board/committee meeting

 An independent proposition which, if passed, “commits

the organization to some action or attitude”, even
beyond/after the meeting during which it was adopted

 One main motion at a time – no other main motion is

pending
Managing Meetings
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure
Classification of Motions
2. Subsidiary Motion
 Motions generally designed to either modify or dispose
temporarily or permanently a main motion pending
before the assembly/board/committee
 Dependent on the main motion to which they maybe
applied for purposes of modification or disposition
 Has priority over the main motion to which it is applied
 Motion to amend
 Motion to lay on the table
 Motion to call the previous question
 Motion to modify the limits of debate
 Motion to postpone definitely/indefinitely
 Motion to commit or refer to a committee
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Classification of Motions
Incidental Motions
 Motion that arise only incidentally out of the business or
proceedings of the assembly
 Have no fixed rank but they take precedence over the
question from which they arise, whether such question is
main, subsidiary or privileged
 Motion to suspend the rules
 To withdraw or modify motion
 To object to the consideration of a question
 To raise a point of order
 To raise a parliamentary inquiry
 To raise a point of information
 To appeal from the decision of the Chair
 To call for a division of the assembly
 To ask for the division of the question
 To read papers
 Motions relating to nominations
 Motions relating to voting
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Basic Rules in Parliamentary Procedure
Classification of Motions
Privileged Motions
 Have the characteristic of the main motion and,
as matter of fact, they are treated as such if they
are proposed when no business is pending before
the assembly/ board/ committee
 Designed to meet urgent needs of the assembly/
board/ committee and for this reason they are
entitled to the highest precedence
 Motion to fix the time to which to adjourn
 To adjourn (if unqualified)
 To take a recess
 To raise a question of privilege
 To call for orders of the day
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Classification of Motions
Can a motion interrupt a speaker?
 NO, as a general rule. Once a speaker is recognize, he is entitled to
the floor so long as he does not violate the rules of speaking.

Exceptions: Motions which require immediate attention are those

which affect the the rights and privileges of a member or the
organization itself; because of the time limits prescribe proposal
and disposition.

 Questions of privilege (convenience, comfort, right or security)

 Point of order
 point of parliament inquiry
 Point of information

 Reconsider a question
 Object to the assembly
 Appeal from the decision of the Chair
 Call for orders of the day
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Classification of Motions
Does a motion require a second?
 YES, as a rule all motions require a second.

Exceptions: Motions which either constitute a demand, request, or

an assertion of a member’s right or privilege as granted by
parliamentary law or rules of the organization.

 Motions constituting a demand or request

 Division of the assembly (I move for the division….)

 Division of a question (I move for the division….)
 Point of order (Point of order, Mr. Chairman)
 Point of information/parliamentary inquiry (Point of
parliamentary....)
 Reading of papers (I move for the reading of …..)
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Classification of Motions
Does a motion require a second?
 YES, as a rule all motions require a second.

Exceptions: Motions which either constitute a demand, request,

or an assertion of a member’s right or privilege as granted by
parliamentary law or rules of the organization.

 Motions constituting an assertion of a Right or privilege

 Call for orders of the day (Mr. Chairman, I call for the orders of
the day)
 Question of privilege (Mr. Chairman, I raise a question of
privilege; Point of privilege, Mr. Chairman)
 Withdrawal of a motion (Mr. Chairman, I move to withdraw my
motion)
Change of vote (Mr. Chairman, I move to change my vote
from “yes to no ”)
 Objection to the consideration of a question
(Mr. Chairman I object to ….)
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Classification of Motions
Is the motion Debatable?
 YES, insofar as those consist of substantive propositions requiring
consideration by the assembly/ board/ committee

Exceptions: Motions which are procedural in character and are

generally decided by the Chair.

 Motions entitled to full debate

 Main motion
 To amend, if applied to a fully debatable question
 To postpone indefinitely
 To appeal, unless applied to undebatable questions or when
related to indecorum, transgression of the rules of speaking,
or priority of business.
 To reconsider
 To rescind or repeal
 Conducting Effective Meetings
Classification of Motions
Is the motion Debatable?
 YES, insofar as those consist of substantive propositions
requiring consideration by the assembly/ board/ committee

Exceptions: Motions which are procedural in character and

are generally decided by the Chair.

 Motions allowing limited debates

These are motions in which the discussion is

restricted to those aspects of a subject that can be
changed. For instance, the motion to refer to a
committee is debatable only in the point of
appropriateness of referring, and does not open the main
question to debate. Similarly, in motion to postpone to a
definite time, only the question of postponement is open
to debate, and not the main motion.
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Classification of Motions
Can a motion be amended?
 YES, in case of main motions and motions to amend, subject to the
following conditions:
•Must be done within the specified time or during the period
of amendment .
•Must be confined to the merits of the main motion.
•Must be intimately related, germane, closely relevant to and
intrinsically associated with the main motion.

4 BASIC METHODS OF AMENDMENT

•Amendment by deletion (elimination of some words and phrases)

•Amendment by insertion
•Amendment by substitution
•Amendment by addition
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Classification of Motions
Can a motion be amended?
 Motions whose amendments are restricted to the variable details of
each proposition as correspondingly indicated:

•To fix the time to which to adjourn (duration, effectivity and place of
adjournment)
•To postpone definitely (duration of postponement and kind of order to
be created by the postponement)
•To modify the limits of debate (time element and manner of limiting
or extending debate)
•To take a recess (duration and effectivity of recess)
•To refer to a committee (kind of committee, its composition and
instruction to be given it)

All other motions cannot be amended because they

are either requests or demands which do not offer
possibilities of modification.
 Conducting Effective Meetings

Types of amendments
Primary Amendment or amendment of the first
degree

 amendment of any pending motion except an

amendment

Secondary amendment or amendment of the second

degree

 amendment of a primary amendment

 a secondary amendment cannot be amended
 Conducting Effective Meetings

VOTING
 means by which the decision of the deliberative
assembly/board/committee is obtained.

 All members of a cooperative have equal voting

rights under the one-man-one-vote principle.

 Methods of voting
•By silent assent
•By showing hands
•By roll call
•By voice
•By division
•By ballot
•By nominal voting
Managing Meetings
VOTING
 Classes of votes

 Majority vote
 Majority of the legal votes
 Majority of the total votes cast
 Majority of the members present
 Majority of all the members

 Percentage vote
 Proportion of a certain whole (2/3 or ¾ of the members)

 Unanimous vote
 100% of the counted valid votes

 Plurality vote
 Larger by at least one over the total vote of any candidate of proposition.

 Tie vote
 Same number of the highest/lowest vote thus creating a deadlock
VOTING
May a Presiding Officer vote?
NO, as a general rule, except:
To break a tie – when it is a tie (i.e., 15 against 15 votes) resulting in the
defeat of a motion. The Chair may vote in the affirmative but not in the negative by
simply announcing immediately that the motion is carried.

To create a tie – when the affirmative has one vote margin over the negative
(i.e., 15 against 14 votes) the Chair may vote in the negative to create a tie thus
defeat the motion.
Note that in case of an appeal from the decision of the Chair, he can vote in the affirmative (i.e.,
14 against 15 votes) to create a tie thereby sustaining his decision.

To defeat or adopt – when a percentage vote is necessary (i.e., 2/3 or ¾

votes) the Chair may vote with the majority to cause its adoption or with the
minority to prevent the adoption of the motion.

The presiding officer may not vote at all (abstain)

to maintain a gesture of impartiality and a sense
of fairness.
VOTING

Why is voting important?

With the exception of a few motions which,
as a rule, are decided summarily by the chair, all
matters brought before the assembly can be
properly disposed of only by the vote of the
members.

Managing Meetings
Relevant Quotes

“Organizations will only change when the

people in them change, and people will only
change when they accept in their hearts and
minds that change must occur”

John Harvey-Jones

Managing Meetings