By Matt Noyes. Based on a class taught for AUD by Steve Downs, a New York City train operator and reform activist who is an expert at Robert's Rules in the real world and a great improviser.
Summary:
The participants, having reviewed the basics of Robert's Rules, and briefly discussed their use in the real world of union meetings, go through a series of role plays in which particular participants are assigned roles (but not scripts) to play. The role plays start easy, and get harder, involving more obstacles, including a chair who violates the rules, and more. What makes this activity work is what the participants bring -- having been frustrated by the way union meetings are conducted. The activity also plays a valuable role in providing a way for activists to let off steam, leaving them ready to think about how to deal with the problems of union meetings.
Materials/People:
Strips of paper with roles for specific players. You also need one or two ringers, activists who know Robert's Rules and how to use them in favor of reform and democracy.
Purpose:
To practice Robert's Rules first in a friendly scenario, and then in more difficult situations. To give people practice in preparing for a meeting and trying to get their motion carried in the meeting, in the face of the type of obstacles they will likely encounter. To provoke a discussion about the role of rules of order and the importance of organizing in creating democracy.
Process:
Explain and motivate. Encourage people to draw on their experience to make the meeting realistic. Restate the main idea: to practice getting your point across and participating in a discussion using Robert's Rules.
Role Play #1
Time: 15 minutes
- Form three groups:
- When the preparation time is up, the chairperson calls the meeting to order and we begin. From this point on it is improvisation, based on the objectives and roles of the different players. The key to Role Play #1 is to play fair, giving people a chance to use the rules of order. For example, if a speaker screws up the jargon, the chair can help clarify, "Excuse me brother, are you asking us to "call the question“ -- to decide whether to end discussion and come to a vote?"
- The role play goes until either the motions get made, debated, and resolved or the process breaks down and people are not sure what to do.
- Follow the role play with a debriefing: facilitator asks, "What did you notice?" (Congratulate participants on their performances, share laughs about particularly comical or real moments.) Question participants about the role play with the purpose of getting them to describe what happened, think about strengths and weaknesses of the reformers, and discuss ways to do better. Ask if this is what their meetings are like. (Note: you may not want to spend too much time, because you have two more role plays!)
- Then, you go to the next role play, warning people that this one will be a bit more difficult.
Group A (3 people: the facilitator and the guest activists). Give them the following instructions; they get five minutes or so to plan their action in the meeting:
Guest activist #1 is chair of the meeting, democratic but strict.
The facilitator is the Union Secretary, taking minutes, and Guest Activist #2 is the Vice President.
We, the officers want the local to spend no money; we are worried about finances. The local has a surplus of $15,000.
Group B (3-4 participants); they get these instructions and are given five minutes or so to plan their action in the meeting:
You are a rank and file group in the meeting.
You think that the union should donate $10,000 to the striking workers at Overnight Freight. The local has a surplus of $15,000.
Questions: What will you do? Who will make the motion? Who will second it? Who will speak in support?
Group C (3-4 participants); they get these instructions:
You are participants in the meeting.
You can respond in any way you like. You should speak in the meeting.
Role Play #2 Basics with Obstacles
15 Minutes
Group A (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
Guest activist #1 is chair of the meeting, fair but strict. Faciitator takes minutes and Guest Activist #2 is a supporter who is not a union officer.You want the members to approve your plan to send the top officers to a special training conference at Cornell University.
Questions: What will you do? Who will make the motion? Who will second it? Who will speak in support?
Group B -- three people (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
Your group wants members to know their rights in the union. You want to union to buy copies of a book called Democratic Rights of Union Members, by Herman Benson, for every member. You want the union to educate the rank and file, and not just the officers.Questions: What will you do? Who will make the motion? Who will second it? Who will speak in support?
Person C (one person: read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
Wait until the discussion starts. You have no interest in the discussion and want to discuss the next labor day parade. Maybe the union should have a banner? Try to change the subject and get people talking about the labor day parade.Person D
Wait until the discussion starts. You are bored and want to end the meeting.Try to get people to end the meeting.
Person E
Wait until the discussion starts and there is a motion to buy a book for the members. You think members should know their rights, and you support the idea that the union should buy a book for the members, but you think the best book for that is The Legal Rights of Union Stewards by Robert Schwartz.Also, you like to go on and on when you talk.
Try to get the people making the motion about the union buying a book for the stewards to change it to use the Schwartz guide instead.
- The chair calls the meeting to order and we begin improvising. Keep this Role Play fair, giving people a chance to use the rules of order, but you do not have to bend over backwards to help them out.
- The role play goes until either the motions get made, debated, and resolved or the process breaks down and people are not sure what to do.
- Again, follow the role play with a debriefing. Facilitator asks, "What did you notice this time?" (Congratulate participants on their performances, share laughs about particularly comical or real moments.) Question participants about the role play with the purpose of getting them to describe what happened, think about strengths and weaknesses of the reformers, and discuss ways to do better. Ask if this is what their meetings are like.
- Then, you go to the final role play, warning people that this one will be even more difficult.
Role Play #3 Conflict
Group A (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
Activist #1 is chair of the meeting, Facilitator takes minutes and Activist #2 is a supporter who is not a union officer.You know the reformers want to move that the local should have elected stewards. You do not want this to happen. The bylaws are silent on the issue. The reformers tried to get this motion passed last meeting, but it was postponed to this meeting. You also want to have the meeting approve a motion stating that the members are united and support the local leadership.
The chair should feel free to abuse his power as chair.
Questions: What will you do? Who will make the motion? Who will second it? Who will speak in support? How will you shut down the reformers?
Group B (three people or so; read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
Your group wants the local to adopt a policy that stewards will be elected, not appointed. The bylaws are silent on this issue. You tried to get this motion passed last meeting, but it was postponed to this meeting. You have three people in this meeting.Questions: What will you do? Who will make the motion? Who will second it? Who will speak in support? Who do you have to convince?
Person C (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
You are an appointed steward who supports the current leadership no matter what.Person D (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
You are a member who has lost a grievance because the appointed steward did a bad job representing you.Person E (read instructions, take five minutes to plan)
You hate your steward, who is at this meeting, but your goal is to get appointed as steward by the local president.
- The chair calls the meeting to order and we begin. This Role Play is supposed to be unfair, but don't go over the top, unless it seems like the right pedagogical thing to do.
- The role play goes until either the motions get made, debated, and resolved or the process breaks down and people are not sure what to do.
- Debrief: "What did you notice this time?" (Congratulate participants on their performances, share laughs about particularly comical or real moments.) Question participants about the role play with the purpose of getting them to describe what happened, think about strengths and weaknesses of the reformers, and discuss ways to do better. Ask if this is what their meetings are like.
- At this point, you want to get people to summarize what they learned from the role plays. What conclusions can they draw? How can they better prepare for the real union meetings? How important are union meetings in the larger scheme of their strategy?
- You may also want to give your activist guests a chance to talk about their own experiences in this area -- how they handle these problems.
Watch for:
In any role play, you want to strike a balance between rowdy improvisation and realism. Do this by clearly stating the purpose of the activity up front.
Improvisation can bring up some nasty stuff, especially when people are role playing nasty characters. You may want to set some ground rules about language or about racial slurs, etc. before you begin.
If role play #1 is hard for people, consider repeating it. The point is to build people's capacity and confidence, not make them feel more frustrated.
Variations:
Stop action could be useful here.
It may be interesting to watch union meetings depicted in films like Salt of the Earth, Matewan, Blue Collar, and Turn it Around (the Teamster video), and ask people to analyze the way different players are using or ignoring the rules.
Examples:
I have used this activity several times, it was often part of the class series AUD ran in the Brooklyn office. The guest experts (ringers) for this particular version of the role play were Steve Downs, a train operator and executive board member of TWU Local 100, and Ricardo Bermudez, an rank-and-file activist in the New York Metro Postal Workers Union, APWU. The role plays were realistic and riotous and prompted serious reflection on the question of rules and enforcement of rights. People struggled with the reality that whatever Robert's Rules say, the key to defending your rights is not being an expert parliamentarian but a determined organizer. (The human tendency to place tools above the tool users is hard to overcome especially when it comes to Rules of Order -- in my experience people often expect that some avenging angel, a government agency, or old Robert himself, will step in and smite the chair who misuses her or his authority or calls them out of order.)