Business Meeting Basics Video

Here's the promised video that describes the basics of parliamentary business meeting mechanics, including how to speak in debate and the most common ways we count votes.

( Basic Video )

I hope this video helps people who aren't familiar with our normal practices in deliberative assembly debates under formal parliamentary-law rules. I know this can be intimidating to newcomers. While I can't have the WSFS Business Meeting be a seminar in Robert's Rules of Order, I do want to make it clear that those of us running the meetings aren't trying to use the rules to silence people, but to allow a large group of people with diverse and conflicting opinions to reach a decision in an orderly and fair manner.

By the way, there are panels scheduled immediately after the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday Business Meetings (in a smaller room nearby) to discuss the technical aspects of each day's meeting. That's the place to go if you want to hear in more detail why things went the way they did. If you're really interested in learning more about how to make the rules work for you, I recommend putting off lunch until after the "What Just Happened?" panels on those days.

Not Complaining About the Rain

We had some pretty serious thunderstorms today in Fernley. As usual, when the rain comes, it pools up pretty quickly because there's nowhere for the water to drain and the hardpan is right below the surface.

( During and After )

I'm glad we're getting rain, and hope that there's even more falling into the Lake Tahoe basin and the Walker Lake drainage, where it will do much more good than puddling up here in Fernley, although we of course hope the rains will also do some good for recharging the local aquifer. I am also glad I did not have to go anywhere today, and furthermore, the rain did bring the temperatures down to a much more tolerable level. The only fault I find with such a mild summer is that it's why we're getting such a bumper crop of Russian Thistle (tumbleweeds). We've been watching the rabbits come out and nibble on them, but what we really need is a herd of goats.