Roberts Rules Of Order Cheat Sheet 2021

Running Meetings Without Losing Your Mind

I spent about six years on various boards where someone brought up Roberts Rules almost weekly, usually to point out that the motion on the floor wasn't properly seconded or to derail a discussion by raising a point of order at the worst possible moment. The cheat sheet was the only thing that kept us functional. Below is what actually matters when you're trying to get through a two-hour meeting without everyone talking over each other. The 2021 edition updated several motions and clarified the parliamentary procedure around virtual meetings, which matters more now than it did when I first started reading this. The core structure stays the same though. You call a meeting to order, you approve the minutes from last time, you handle unfinished business, then you take up new business. That sequence is non-negotiable unless the bylaws say otherwise. The most common mistake people make is thinking that any member can just stand up and start talking. They can't. You have to be recognized by the chair. You raise your hand or say "Mr. President" and wait until they call on you. I've watched people blow three minutes arguing about whether they were "recognized" when the answer was simply that nobody raised their hand in a way the chair could see. Small thing. Huge waste of time.

Motions need a second. Without a second, the chair says "Is there a second?" and if nobody second it, the motion dies right there. No vote, no discussion, just gone. This trips people up constantly because they think once they state a motion, they own the floor. You don't. The assembly owns it after it's seconded. I once saw a member try to withdraw a motion three minutes into debate because he realized he'd phrased it poorly. The chair correctly ruled that withdrawal required a majority vote since the motion had already been taken from him by the assembly.

The Motions That Actually Matter

You don't need to memorize all fifty-something motions in the book. In practice, you use maybe eight of them in any given year. The rest are edge cases. Here are the ones I reached for repeatedly. Motion to Amend - Change the wording of a pending motion before it's voted on. You state the amendment clearly, say "I move to amend the motion by striking out 'monthly' and inserting 'quarterly,'" then someone seconds it and it's open for debate. This is how you fix a motion that's close but not quite right without killing the whole thing and starting over. Motion to Table - Temporarily set something aside to deal with more urgent business. People use this wrong all the time. Tabling doesn't kill a motion. It just parks it. If you table something and the meeting ends, the motion comes back up at the next meeting's unfinished business. I learned this the hard way when our treasurer tabled a budget proposal thinking it was dead, then forgot about it for eight months.

Motion to Postpone - Delay a motion to a specific time or the next meeting. Different from tabling because the postponement is definite. The motion must return on a known date. Use this when people need more time to research something before voting. Motion to Refer - Send a motion to a committee. This is useful when a motion is too complex for the full group to handle in one session. I once referred a facilities renovation motion to a five-person committee and we saved probably three meetings of circular discussion. The committee reported back two weeks later with a concrete plan. Motion to Limit or Extend Debate - Set a time limit on discussion or extend it. Default debate time is usually ten minutes per side on most motions unless the bylaws or the group sets something different. If you're in a room full of people who love to hear themselves talk, this motion is essential.

Motion to Call the Question - End debate and vote immediately. This requires a second and a two-thirds vote to pass. Most chairs mess this one up by treating it like a simple majority vote. It's not. You need two-thirds of those present and voting to cut off discussion. I've seen chairs incorrectly deny this motion when two-thirds of the room clearly wanted it granted. Motion to Adjourn - End the meeting. This is privileged, meaning it can be made even while another motion is on the floor. It doesn't need a second in some interpretations but the 2021 edition aligns with requiring one for clarity. Usually passed by unanimous consent or a simple voice vote since everyone wants to go home eventually.

Points and Incidental Motions

These are the things people misuse to stall meetings. Understanding them protects you from that. Point of Order - You claim a rule has been violated. The chair rules on it immediately. If you disagree with the ruling, you can appeal to the assembly, which requires a second and a majority vote to overturn the chair. I once appealed a chair's ruling on a points of order about quorum and lost 18 to 4. The lesson was that appealing a chair is risky unless you're fairly certain of support. Point of Information - Ask a factual question, not a debating question. I've seen people disguise arguments as requests for information. "Can you explain how your amendment affects paragraph three of the bylaws?" is really an argument, not information. The chair should interrupt that kind of thing.

Parliamentary Inquiry - Ask the chair about the rules. This is the proper way to clarify procedure without derailing discussion. Use it when you're unsure whether a motion is in order. The chair answers and the group gets the ruling. Inquiry as to the Scope of Debate - Ask what topic the current motion allows discussion on. This keeps people from going off into irrelevant territory. If the motion is about painting the exterior, you shouldn't be discussing the roofing contract.

Quorum and Voting

Quorum is the minimum number of members who must be present to conduct business. Check your bylaws. If they don't specify, the default under Roberts Rules is a majority of members entitled to vote. You can't transact business without quorum. If someone raises a point of order that quorum isn't met and the chair agrees, everything stops until quorum is restored or the group adjourns or takes a recess. Voting methods matter more than people realize. A show of hands is standard for routine business. A balloting (written vote) is required when the bylaws say so or when a secret vote is needed. A roll call vote is when each member says their name and how they vote. This is important for the record. If someone votes no on something and later claims they didn't, the roll call settles that. A majority means more than half of those voting, not more than half of the total membership. This distinction causes problems. If you have 20 members and 12 show up and 8 vote, a majority of those voting is 5, not 11. I've seen boards incorrectly require 11 votes because someone misread the rule as majority of the membership present.

Special Situations the Cheat Sheet Covers

The 2021 edition added clearer guidance on virtual and hybrid meetings. Remote participation counts toward quorum if the technology allows members to hear and be heard. This wasn't explicitly covered in earlier editions and caused confusion during the pandemic. If your group is doing Zoom meetings, make sure your bylaws address this or adopt a resolution acknowledging that virtual attendance satisfies quorum requirements. Nomination procedures also got more detail. You can nominate from the floor unless the bylaws restrict it. Many groups mistakenly think nominations must come from a committee. They don't, unless the bylaws say otherwise. I've seen chairs refuse floor nominations because they believed the wrong rule. That's a procedural error that can be appealed. There's also updated language around reconsideration. A motion to reconsider can be made only on the same day the original vote occurred or at the next meeting if it was the previous day. You can't sit on a loss for three weeks and then try to reconsider. The time window closes. This caught me once when I wanted to revisit a budget vote but had missed the deadline by a day.

What This Cheat Sheet Doesn't Fix

Roberts Rules will not save a meeting where the chair is hostile or incompetent. If the presiding officer decides outcomes in advance and uses parliamentary procedure as a weapon, no amount of knowledge about motions will help. In my experience, the best workaround is to document everything in writing and have someone else serve as secretary who creates a detailed record. When people have a written transcript, they're less likely to accept procedural abuse. The system also assumes good faith participation. It breaks down with people who deliberately file frivolous motions, raise points of order on trivial matters, or abuse parliamentary tactics to exhaust opponents. There's no rule against bad-faith procedure. The only real deterrent is a strong chair who recognizes abuse and rules it out. If your bylaws allow the assembly to punish disorderly behavior, use that. If they don't, you're stuck hoping reason wins. For very small groups under twelve people, Roberts Rules is often overkill. Simple consensus decision-making or a streamlined set of internal rules usually works better and takes a third of the time. I've run meetings for a twelve-person board using these rules and another twelve-person group using casual discussion, and the casual one finished in forty minutes while the formal one took two and a half hours for the same agenda items. Not every group needs this level of structure.

Practical Takeaways

Keep a copy of the motions list somewhere accessible during meetings. I keep mine on a card in the front of the Robert's Rules handbook. When someone makes a motion, check whether it's in order, whether it needs a second, and what the vote threshold is before you let debate start. Most procedural problems come from skipping those checks. Learn to distinguish between debatable and non-debatable motions. Main motions are generally debatable. Motions to amend are debatable. Motions to table, postpone, or refer are not debatable. Point of order is not debatable. If you're trying to limit discussion, knowing which motions can and cannot be debated helps you choose the right path instead of filing a motion to limit debate when a simpler route exists. The cheat sheet itself is available through various parliamentary procedure websites and some organizational libraries. Search for the official publisher's version since third-party summaries sometimes omit the 2021 updates. The updates to virtual meeting procedures and nomination clarification are significant enough that using an outdated version could cause procedural errors in your meetings.