Specialty Clubs Study Robert’s Rules of Order

Five specialty Toastmasters clubs in the United States allow members to learn, study, and practice Robert’s Rules of Order. One, the New York-based Virtual Parliamentarians club, helps some of its members become Registered Parliamentarians. A monthly calendar of the clubs’ meetings is maintained on the website of the Riverside Society of Parliamentarians in California.

Members of these online-only specialty clubs, which meet monthly, try to touch on parliamentary procedure-related topics in their prepared speeches. Table Topics® often involves some aspect of the parliamentary vocabulary and rules to learn. Members even take quizzes to hone their knowledge. Rick Sydor, DTM, of Roseville, California, is a Registered Parliamentarian who regularly posts a quiz question on the Toastmasters International Facebook page. Sample: “When may a person rise [from his seat to indicate] a ‘point of order’?” (Short answer: whenever the parliamentary rules are violated.)

Remarkably, both Sydor and Bob Palmer, DTM, have been Toastmasters for 50 years, each one joining in 1973. (Sydor served as an International Director 1996–1998.) Both men belong to specialty clubs dedicated to parliamentary procedure, and both believe strongly that learning these rules helps people in all kinds of settings.

“The lessons and training and practice carry over into [club members’] Area, Division, and District meeting experiences,” Palmer says, “as well as to individual members' involvements on boards and committees in HOAs [homeowners associations], churches, and civic clubs such as Rotary, Kiwanis, League of Women Voters, and many others.”