7 minute read
Workshop Schedule
Virtual Deliberative Participation
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Adrian Stratton, PRP This session will provide a comprehensive overview of virtual deliberative participation for parliamentarians. It will focus on how to expand parliamentary participation within virtual environments for parliamentarians.
Rethinking Revisions
Colette Trohan, PRP Revisions are risky business - months of work can be undone in a single vote. The process outlined in RONR takes away all of the protections of notice and scope of notice and makes adopting a revision a free-for-all. This workshop will offer another way to handle a revision that minimizes risk and maximizes reward.
Economic Outlook of Parliamentarian Services
Jason Morgan, PRP, and Donald Garrett, PRP Hear and discuss the results of NAP's recent economic survey to broadly study the market for parliamentary services and related non-parliamentary services. This study, based on anonymous data volunteered by NAP members, paints the most complete picture to date of the business environment in which parliamentarians operate. This information can help parliamentarians acquire the tools they need to market themselves effectively so that potential clients everywhere can hold better meetings.
ParliPro On Point
Theljewa Garrett, PRP, and members of the NAP Youth Committee Parliamentary procedure is one of the most popular leadership development events in many of the National Association of Parliamentarians partner organizations. However, when it comes to coaching parlipro teams and working with student groups, you must be ON POINT! Do you want to develop a strong foundation for in-person and virtual teams to compete better? Do you need a few new learning activities to keep your students actively involved in learning parliamentary procedure? Learn a few tips (and share your ideas) on coaching parlipro teams and teaching student groups then, try your hand at the YC’s Game of ParliPro Scattegories!
Dispelling Parliamentary Myths
Tim Wynn, PRP This workshop examines principles and techniques for providing clear and accurate responses to parliamentary questions. Participants will review common and seemingly simple parliamentary questions from different points of view. The workshop will also analyze the components of drafting a written parliamentary opinion and provide practical tips for a smooth and efficient workflow.
Two Sides to the Coin
Alison Wallis, PRP This workshop is designed to help practicing professional parliamentarians develop clear fee structures to cover a wide range of parliamentary services so that the client understands what will be billed and the PRP is compensated as desired. The workshop will show how to achieve smooth billing practices that are pain-free to the client and the parliamentarian.
Parliamentarian as Opinion Writer
Michael Malamut, PRP This workshop will focus on the nuts and bolts of parliamentary opinions: When are they needed? How should they be written? What should they include? What types of opinions are there (oral, simple email, informal, formal)? What resources should the parliamentarian use? How to communicate with the client about the opinion?
Designing Better Meetings
Steven Bolen, PRP Sometimes parliamentary procedure alone is not enough to assure a great meeting. The intentional design of meetings based on behavioral science is a skill that parliamentarians can offer their clients above and beyond the knowledge of the rules themselves. Robert’s shows us how to encourage debate and communication but it doesn’t show us how room arrangements and visual tools can maximize the debate and retention of knowledge. Even the best meetings can be made better when they are executed with intention.
Understanding Step Two of the New RP Credentialing Process
Thomas Joseph Balch, PRP Step Two of the new RP credentialing process focuses on the skills parliamentarians need outside of meetings (including preparing to serve meetings). It is composed of a variety of writing assignments from drafting resolutions, bylaw amendments, and scripts to preparing a lesson plan and handouts for a workshop, as well as a teaching demonstration. This workshop will familiarize RP candidates and prospective candidates with the expectations for successful completion, the structure of the assessments, and the methods of evaluation.
Motions from Memory
Valoree Althoff, PRP Can you recite the standard descriptive characteristics (SDC) of the 13 ranking motions? If you are serving clients, you have to! By the end of this session, you will know what the SDC chart is and be able to fill it out from memory!
Better Safe Than Sorry: Preparing for Contingencies
Daniel Seabold, PRP A rogue board, a dead-locked election, a president incapacitated by stroke—organizations face many risks. Because organizations differ in their circumstances and in their tolerance for risk, they often need to supplement the rules in RONR with custom provisions, drafted by parliamentarians. Through guided group exercises, we’ll practice reviewing governing rules in light of an organization’s specific concerns, proposing and helping the organization to choose between alternate ways to address those concerns, and drafting concise and unambiguous rules to protect an organization from its worst fears.
"And the Winner Is..."
David Mezzera, PRP You might be amazed at how many different methods of determining voting results are listed in RONR (well beyond just majority, plurality and two thirds). This workshop will cover them all. You will be able to show off your own knowledge of voting results and gain even more mastery of the methods found in RONR for declaring victors and for adopting motions.
A Deep Dive into Limiting Debate
Donald Garrett, PRP Come take a deep dive into motions that limit debate under Robert's. This workshop will address every hypothetical situation you can imagine. Donald Garrett, PRP, is an engaging instructor who uses real-world examples to highlight concepts taught in the book. This workshop is perfect for beginner and intermediate learners of parliamentary procedure.
Drafting Clear and Logical Bylaws and Rules
Kirk Overbey, PRP The techniques for legal writing are also valid for bylaws and rules, as are the recommendations in the NAP Pathways to Proficiency Series book What Does It Say in the Bylaws? Participants will apply these techniques to examples of poorly written bylaws. Learn why "and/or" and "shall" should be avoided.
How to Deal with an Abusive Presiding Officer
Richard Hayes, PRP From time to time and for one reason or another, an organization will be faced with an abuse of authority by the Chair during a meeting. When that happens, members have many tools at their disposal including the right to make Points of Order, Appeal the Decision of the Chair, temporary replacement of the Chair and, if serious enough, removal of the Chair. Share your experiences and help explore the best alternatives to deal with various situations.
Quorum Quandaries
Adam Hathaway, PRP An understanding of the intricacies surrounding the creation and calculation of quorum requirements is critical to a society's ability to conduct business in a proportionally representative fashion. This session will explore best practices in determining whether a quorum is present and how it should be established within governing documents. Challenges regarding the creation and enforcement of quorum requirements for virtual meetings will also be addressed.
Where Were the Directors?
Carl Nohr, PRP Parliamentarian consultants must be able to advise clients regarding the rights and responsibilities of individual officers and of a board. After this session, you will be better able to fulfill this role and possibly save your association or company from governance failures that cause people to ask, “Where were the directors?”
Dealing with COVID and Electronic Meeting Threats to Members’ Rights
John Berg, RP The credo “Never let a good crisis go to waste” can allow for infringement of members’ rights. While adjusting to COVID and electronic meetings, modifications and limitations to procedures and formats must still protect all member’s rights. Interactive discussion rather than lecture will allow participants to pose real-life questions and discuss various solutions. Covered will be how to accomplish electronic meetings when an in-person meeting is not practical to amend the bylaws to allow electronic meetings, how various electronic meeting formats impact members ability to freely debate and raise points of order, and effectively voting electronically.
The Presiding Officer's Whisperer
Lorenzo Cuesta, PRP The greatest challenge in serving as a meeting parliamentarian is how to advise the chair on the pitfalls of debate during debate. This assistance needs to be precise, immediate, and unobstructive to the chair’s control of debate. This workshop will cover an approach which can best be described as the “Presiding Officer’s Whisperer.”
Avoiding Professional Responsibility Pitfalls
Weldon Merritt, PRP; Denise Irminger, PRP; Jason Morgan, PRP; and Tannis Nelson, PRP This workshop, presented by NAP's Professional Standards Committee, will explore ideas for how a parliamentarian may reduce the chances of becoming the target of a professional responsibility complaint. Participants are encouraged to share their own 'war stories' and best practice ideas.
