RogerJ1 (Texas)
Posts: 550
Posts: 550
Posted:
Robert’s Rules humor
First some context: This was the Treasurer, on a POA board, who does basically nothing, producing no real financial statements and who does zero accounting. I have written about his actions, or lack of actions, before.
The new Board president informed everyone at the first meeting of this year that the Board would not allow Robert’s rules to be followed in meetings. There was a lengthy discussion about it and then the Treasurer, who usually says nothing on any topic – even treasury activity, asked why they followed Richard’s rules in the first place. The guy is not a joking type so they knew he was not joking. He was referring to a Board member whose real name is Robert but he goes by Richard (actually not even Richard but I do not want to use the name he normally goes by incase someone who knows the situation is reading this.) Everyone started laughing, including the whole board and the handful of members who were attending the meeting. Some were laughing so hard, they were almost crying.
He even asked how Richard came up with all the rules and why people had handbooks of Richard’s rules – people had Robert’s Rule books with them looking up stuff when the Board was discussing the suspension of Robert’s Rules and a few people had Robert’s Rules books at the recent annual meeting and he was referring to those published handbooks as Richard’s books – he asked why some many people had books of Richard’s Rules.
There are probably many people who have never heard of Robert’s rules, even some educated people but the context of this story make even less sense of the Treasurer’s observation: four board members, including the Treasurer, would often ignore Richard in meetings, not allowing him to bring up topics, and they excluded him from most to all of the communication the other Board members had outside of meetings –Richard learned of a few examples were the board intentionally left him off Board email communications. Even members at the meeting knew that situation, so no one had any idea why the Treasurer would think the Board, who he knew openly ignored Richard in the running of the Board, would be following Richard’s Rules, as he thought.
First some context: This was the Treasurer, on a POA board, who does basically nothing, producing no real financial statements and who does zero accounting. I have written about his actions, or lack of actions, before.
The new Board president informed everyone at the first meeting of this year that the Board would not allow Robert’s rules to be followed in meetings. There was a lengthy discussion about it and then the Treasurer, who usually says nothing on any topic – even treasury activity, asked why they followed Richard’s rules in the first place. The guy is not a joking type so they knew he was not joking. He was referring to a Board member whose real name is Robert but he goes by Richard (actually not even Richard but I do not want to use the name he normally goes by incase someone who knows the situation is reading this.) Everyone started laughing, including the whole board and the handful of members who were attending the meeting. Some were laughing so hard, they were almost crying.
He even asked how Richard came up with all the rules and why people had handbooks of Richard’s rules – people had Robert’s Rule books with them looking up stuff when the Board was discussing the suspension of Robert’s Rules and a few people had Robert’s Rules books at the recent annual meeting and he was referring to those published handbooks as Richard’s books – he asked why some many people had books of Richard’s Rules.
There are probably many people who have never heard of Robert’s rules, even some educated people but the context of this story make even less sense of the Treasurer’s observation: four board members, including the Treasurer, would often ignore Richard in meetings, not allowing him to bring up topics, and they excluded him from most to all of the communication the other Board members had outside of meetings –Richard learned of a few examples were the board intentionally left him off Board email communications. Even members at the meeting knew that situation, so no one had any idea why the Treasurer would think the Board, who he knew openly ignored Richard in the running of the Board, would be following Richard’s Rules, as he thought.