كارگاه‌هاي آموزش دستورنامه رابرت (كادرها)

ًRobert’s Rules of Order in Iran: part one

Thursday 31 August 2017

The three-day workshop on "Efficient Management of Employer Organizations", which was held in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization of Employers (IEO) and the Iranian Confederation of Employers’ Associations (ICEA), from Saturday to Monday, August 12 to 14, 2017, in Tehran, was an excellent opportunity to introduce the Robert’s Rules of Order.

There are currently more than 2000 employer organizations operating throughout Iran, and if the ICEA Convention is governed by the Robert’s Rules of Order, then the delegates presenting at the Convention would be familiar with these rules and would localize them at their owned assemblies they manage, and in this way, within a few years, these rules could be localized in employer organizations throughout Iran.

In addition, employer organizations are constantly communicating through social dialogue and tripartite debate with labor organizations, and it can be hoped that these rules will also be leaked in labor organizations.

However, the experience of about a decade of the trainer in the localization of these rules suggests that, contrary to expectations, the presidents and board members of the employers’ organizations resist these rules. Why? What can be done in this field? This week’s note will point to these points.

In the workshop that is held every Tuesday morning at the Cadres’ Office, the trainer outlined the main characteristics of villages and towns of Iranian Plateau and, by comparing their situation with villages and cities in Europe, explained why the possibility of the emergence of the capitalist system - as in England came into existence - it was not there in Iran.

The trainer usually describes in the cadres’ workshops how the formation of Tehran’s metropolis was possible and how the urbanization of the millions of villagers who built Tehran over the recent decades - for the first time in Iranian history-has created the ground for the formation of societies and associations whose members have equal right to vote and, as far as their needs are concerned, they will appreciate more and more this rules of order.

On Tuesday evening, the eleventh meeting of the founding session of the alumni council of the college of cinema and theater was held at the Cadres’ Office. The agenda of this session is to amend and adopt the bylaws and to establish the association based on them.

The rules of order’ trainer has carried out numerous workshops for Iranian students in recent years, and now it can be claimed that the seed of awareness of Robert’s Rules of Order has been spilled in most Iranian universities. But this is the first time that a faculty chair is also attending these workshops.

The holding of meetings of the founding session of the alumni council of the college of cinema and theater with the trainer chairmanship showed that the best way to promote the rules of the deliberative assemblies in Iran today is the same. This experience has fundamentally changed the methods of teaching and promoting these rules in Iran, and now the trainer tries to explain and document the experience of this method of promoting these rules, and more importantly, he will try to convince the authorities of existing associations and organizations in order to use the same method for localizing these rules.

The note that follows will only cover the same three last week events:

The theme of the workshop on "Efficient Management of Employer Organizations", which was held in Tehran early this week in cooperation with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization of Employers (IOE) and the Iranian Confederation of Employers’ Associations (ICEA), which was appreciated by employer organizations, was no new for the trainer of “Rules of Order”.

In 2005, the International Labor Organization published four guides entitled "the Effective Employers’ Organization". The first book of this collection is about "Governance" in the employer organizations. The topic of the second book is "Strategy". The third book examines "Advocacy" of the employers’ interests. "Revenue Building" in the employer organizations is also the subject of the last volume of this collection. The trainer, who has been editor of ICEA magazine - “The Employers’ Message” - since 13 years ago, has translated the most important parts of these books and has published them in the magazine. According to the predicted program, it was supposed to examine the same contents in the workshop more or less.
Background
From ten years ago when the trainer of rules of order began to translate "Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised", he submitted the translated materials to Mr. Mohammad Otarediyan, then the secretary general of ICEA, in order to get him familiar with it, since he expected that ICEA would be the first Iranian organization which acquainted whit this rules of order.

The host of the first Robert’s Rules of Order Training Workshop which was held on Sunday, May 6, 2012, in Tehran, was Mr. Mohammad Otaredian. More than ten Iranian national figures attended the workshop and were supposed to establish the first Iranian association to promote Robert’s Rules of Order in Iran after familiarizing themselves with those rules and in accordance with the same rules.

Meeting of that workshop was held every two weeks and continued until 60 meetings. Although the result of that workshop was a complete failure, but it provided the best opportunity for the trainer to better understand the rules of order, as described in the ROBERT’S RULES OF ORFER NEWLY REVISD, and to overcome those rules.

Over the past five years, many workshops have been held to train Robert’s Rules of Order in Iran, and each of them, has been served to develop the methods of localization these rules in Iran.

It can be said that the results of all these efforts are now ending up to this conclusion that one of the best methods of localization the parliamentary procedure in countries that are not familiar with it is that a professional parliamentarian who is very well familiar with chaotic-tyrannical state dominant in the social organizations of the tyrannical countries, manage the meetings of the deliberative assemblies. Thus, the members present in the assemblies learn these rules gradually in the course of the operation.

The significant success of organizing the meetings of the founding session of the alumni council of the college of cinema and theater is the evidence of this claim. So the trainer was looking for an opportunity to explain this important experience to the audience and encourage them to organize their own assemblies with the help of the trainer. Fortunately, this opportunity was provided during discussing the constitutions of the employer organizations.

Differences between rules of order and constitution/bylaws

In tyrannical communities, the formation of an association requires the permission of the ruling group, and if the government allows the establishment of the association, a typical constitution is usually given to the applicants to fill their blanks in accordance with the characteristics of its own associations.

In such countries, the constitution is usually considered as a compulsory document and a barrier which should be signed and granted to the government in order to obtain the authorization to establish the association. After this stage, the founders and members of the association, usually abandon it and behave in accordance with their traditional procedure.

In the civilized world for dealing with these problems, a tradition of rules and customs which is known as "parliamentary procedure" has grown up over the course of history and through trial and error and without prior design. The first part of the Robert Robert’s Of Order Newly Revised In Brief, explains that a small part of the procedure “goes back to classical Greece. But its core content was shaped over the centuries of trial and error in the British Parliament, from which the name of "parliamentary procedure" comes.

In the civilized world for dealing with these problems, a tradition of rules and custom which is known as "parliamentary procedure" has grown up over the course of history and through trial and error and without prior design. The first part of the Robert Robert’s Of Order Newly Revised In Brief, explains that a small part of the procedure “goes back to classical Greece. But its core content was shaped over the centuries of trial and error in the British Parliament, from which the name of "parliamentary procedure" comes.

But as the main part of the iceberg remains hidden underwater, the major part of the rules of parliamentary procedure is also invisible. As a result, the countries that like India during colonization, have not gained direct and intuitive experience from the parliamentary procedure, are not familiar with these relatively complicated rules. Therefore the parliamentary game in these countries seems like the game of chess playing by those who are not familiar with the rules governing the movement of chess pieces

Fortunately, the "parliamentary procedure" was necessarily written in the United States of America, and several books published various versions of "general parliamentary law." Robert’s Rules of Order, which its first edition was published in 1876, and its eleventh edition in 2011, “embodies a codification of the present-day general parliamentary law” and - as much as possible – describes precisely thier rational foundations.

They say that necessity is the mother of invention and discovery. In the course of three decades of professional activity for publishing magazines for the various associations and organizations in Iran, the translator of Robert’s Rules of Order into Persian learned that the main cause of continuation of the ineffectiveness of civil organizations and the refusal of the rule of law in autocracies is their people’s inability to manage the differences in the political parties, civil organizations and pseudo-professional associations fairly.

The existence of the Internet, familiarity with English and the continuous publishing of the publications for a variety of civil and nongovernmental organizations in Iran provided the editor of these publications with the opportunity to get acquainted with Robert’s Rules of Order for the first time in his research to find solutions to these problems.

Over the past ten years, in addition to the translation of the tenth edition of Robert’s Rules of Order in order to understand these rules better, the Persian translator has tried all to localize these rules in existing organizations and create new associations based on these rules.

The first workshop for training Robert’s Rules of Order was held with the presence of more than 10 Iranian national figures and social activists on May 6, 2012, in Tehran. The aim was to learn Robert’s Rules of Order and then to establish the first Iranian society based on those rules and to localize and promote the same rules in Iran.

Although all the participants in the workshop acknowledged the necessity of training the parliamentary procedure and promoting its rules in Iran, and for this reason, they participated regularly in the workshops. But, as much as they became familiar with the rules governing on the parliamentary motions their disappointment with the possibility of promoting these rules in Iran raised more and more.

Eventually, the first Robert’s Rules of Order workshop adjourned after about 60 meetings without reaching its goal. But, about two years opportunity for teaching Robert’s Rules of Order made it possible the translator himself learned the rules more and better, and during his next workshops would innovative and discover new methods for localization the rules among the people who do not know them at all, and inform the members of the first workshop, especially Mr. Mohammad Otaredian, of his latest achievements in localizing the rules.

Mr. Mohammad Otaredian is the founder of the ICEA, and is representing private sector employers at the annual conferences of the International Labor Conference. He is also the ILO Governing Body’s alternate member and a member of the General Council of the IOE. He can be called the father of "social dialogue and tripartite" in Iran. It can also be said that he has devoted all efforts to provide the ground for the development of private sector enterprises in Iran, and one of his most important achievements in recent years has been to contribute to the creation of the Association of Developmental Entrepreneurs" in Iran with the aim of organizing the representatives of the private sector in Iran after the "oil era".

Due to his social status, the Persian translator of Robert’s Rules of Order and the first Iranian trainer of these rules respects for Mr. Mohammad Otaredian’s judgments, and over the past five years, he has regularly reported him on his achievements in the localization of parliamentary procedure and has been waiting for him to announce whether the conditions for the gradual localization of these rules in ICEA is prepared or not.

Fortunately, in recent months, Mr. Mohammad Otaredian has expressed his interest that the Persian translation of the tenth edition of Robert’s Rules of Order would be reproduced with his special introduction would be available to some of the ICEA professionals, and, whit their help, the action plan for gradual localizing these rules in ICEA would be developed and implemented.

Mr. Mohammad Otaredian, in his introduction to the first limited distribution of Persian translation of Robert’s Rules of Order, says:

Now, the experiences of Robert’s Rules of Order Training Workshops Office and the skills of Iranian trainer for localization of these rules, on the one hand, and the conditions governing the ICEA, on the other hand, have been transformed in a way that it is necessary the ICEA to re-create itself gradually.

He goes on to say:

Without the rules of order, it is possible that the members of a board of directors, usually less than ten, ultimately to reach an agreement through traditional procedures. But if the decision of the ICEA is to be decided by all the members of the ICEA and all of them would be committed to the implementation, then the decisions of the board of directors, which are making traditionally, cannot be considered as the decisions of all members.

Being united all member associations of the ICEA around a specific and committed platform and an action plan, without a minimum of the rational and premising rules of order known as "parliamentary procedure", would be harder every day. Robert’s Rules of Order provides us with the predefined rules, and at the same time, each association can amend them in accordance with its own needs.

In the last paragraph of his introduction, Mr. Otaredian noted:

Obviously, without the ICEA members’ acceptance and adoption, the rules of order will not have any legitimacy. And since the legitimacy of these rules is due to their efficiency and effectiveness, the Office of Training Workshops of Robert’s Rules of Order has promised us to prove effectiveness and efficiency of these rules. Therefore, the trainer of Robert’s Rules of Order will meet you to gain your valuable guidance on localization of the rules of order.

Start a new phase

Concerning these experiences, when Mr. Paolo Salvai completed his lecture on the structure of the constitution of the employer organizations, the trainer of Robert’s Rules of Order questioned Mr. Otaredian: whether the time is suitable for introducing the book to the audience?

Fortunately, Mr. Ontarian was agreed to this. So, he took the floor and after thanking Mr. Paolo Salvai, explained that Iranian employers’ associations are more or less familiar with the structure of the constitution and usually act in accordance with it. He then referred to the Robert’s Rules of Order’s trainer, who was attending the courtyard, and explained that: he has been working for 13 years as editor of the magazine “Payame Karfarmayan”, Persian for Employers’ Voice, with the ICEA, and has been translating and teaching Robert’s Rules of Order since 10 years ago. “And these rules, in fact, are complementary to our associations’ constitutions.” Mr. Otaredian said.

At the end of his speech, Mr. Otaredian suggested the Persian translator of the Robert’s book would explain the audience the importance of that book.

The translator of Robert’s book - who was sure that the process of localizing the parliamentary procedure at ICEA from the moment enters a new historical stage - tried to explain the story shortly. Therefore, referring to the topics of the programed lectures, said:

What we know as a constitution is, like a part of the iceberg that is located outside the ocean. But the main part of the iceberg is underwater and is not visible.
Referring to the concrete experiences of Iranian associations, he went on to point out: "We all face the problems associated with the regular, efficient, and effective deliberative assemblies, and we have usually decided to develop some bylaws for organizing meetings and internal affairs of our associations. But when it comes to about 2,000 employer societies and associations across Iran, and, if it is expected the voice of ICEA is really the voice of all its members, then it’s very difficult to come up with a comprehensive, complete and coherent code of conduct.

In addition, even if we succeed in this, we would reinvent the wheel. Why? Because the countries that have passed these steps much earlier than us, have been built up these rules, and Robert’s book has summarized and described those general and generic rules that are useful for all associations.

The Robert’s Rules of Order translator, after explaining how the book is used in the association, went on: Mr. Otaredian has decided to donate some Persian editions of Robert’s Rules of Order to the ICEA professionals, and I wish as the translator of this book that all of them would read the book precisely.

However, the ten-year experience of localizing these rules in Iran shows that the best way to teach these rules is to have deliberative assemblies run with the help of a professional parliamentarian. In that case, the attendees at that assembly, in the course of the parliamentary practice, are simply familiar with these rules and procedures, and they can manage their own associations with the same rules, and thus, these rules can be, through the ICEA, localized over several years in labor unions and later in all associations and deliberative assemblies throughout the country.

Referring to the provision of the necessary infrastructure for holding virtual assemblies, he went on to point out that it is no longer necessary for colleagues from all over the country to gather at a single point in order to hold deliberative assemblies, but could take part in their virtual assemblies, and. at the same time taught and practiced these rules during virtual assemblies.

Offer to international organizations

At the end of his speech, the parliamentary trainer addressed the General Secretary of the IEO, Ms. Linda Kromjong, and Mr. Paolo Salvai, the expert at the ILO International Training Center, who attended the meeting, saying: "I, as a non-western who has, for a decade, tried to understand the western parliamentary procedure, say with some certainty that the people of the chaotic-tyrannical communities are not familiar with this procedure at all, and, although the construction of efficient and effective employer organizations in these communities require a lot of things, but the precondition to meet all those needs, first of all, is that, the members of these organizations can resolve their disagreements and conflict of interest fairly. But without "parliamentary procedure" it will be impossible.

He then suggested to Ms. Linda Kromjong that the IEO, concerning the ICEA experience of localization these rules, would assist the employer associations operating in the Middle East, Russia, Commonwealth of Independent States and Central Asian countries to localize parliamentary procedure in their organizations.

Towards ahead

After introducing Robert’s book, a significant number of attendees at the workshop went to the trainer and looked for the book. One of the prominent personalities of the employer who has been the co-founder of the "Developmental Entrepreneurs Association", asks the trainer astonishingly: "Why did Mr. Otaredian not talk to me about the book?" Robert’s Rules of Order trainer’s explanation in this regard seems to be convincing:

The trainer, referring to the Robert’s Rules of Order Training Workshop, which was held 5 years ago and hosted by Mr. Otaredian in Tehran, explained: "At that workshop the rules governing on parliamentary motions were training which are relatively complex. Mr. Otaredian, after having first acquainted himself with the complicated rules of parliamentary motions, has probably concluded that the ICEA is not still prepared to accept these rules.

But today’s methodology for the localization Robert’s Rules of Order in the established associations, which, fortunately, works well, is appreciated by Mr. Otaredian and others.

Thus, many colleagues negotiated with the trainer for localizing the rules of parliamentary procedure in their owned associations. It was also planned to form the first advisory council consisted of the ICEA advisers and experts and based on the parliamentary procedure, and to try to move things forward in accordance with the same procedure and, indeed, to localize these rules within itself and the ICEA. But all these dreams should be narrated when they would be realized.


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