Conducting Meetings

TC meetings should be conducted in a manner that is fair and open, giving all TC members an equal, unencumbered opportunity to participate. In the interests of fairness to all members, no one member or group of members should be allowed to dominate the meeting to the exclusion of other members who want to participate. Speakers should be recognized in turns by the Chair (or other appointed discussion leader), and the Chair may restrict the length of speeches if time is short and the discussion contentious.

The meeting must start with attendance roll call (to determine quorum and required for membership tracking), approval of the agenda (in order to keep the meeting on topic), and approval of previous meeting minutes (for accountability). The TC Chair or Secretary must keep minutes of the meeting. At a minimum, these minutes must record the date/time and location of the meeting, those persons in attendance, and the decisions made. Minutes should also include a summary of the meeting discussion at an appropriate level of detail. Meeting minutes for OASIS TCs must be made publicly available.

For business to be transacted by the TC, a quorum of membership must be present. A meeting without quorum cannot conduct business, though informal discussion may proceed. If a meeting starts with quorum but during the meeting quorum is lost because people leave then business may continue until it is pointed out that quorum is lost.

The Chair should become familiar with Robert's Rules, which governs the conduct of the meeting, but expert parliamentary knowledge is not required. A Chair could easily get carried away with enforcement of these rules to the letter; the use of Robert's Rules should be an aid to the operation of the TC, not a hindrance. The Chair should exercise judgment as to the degree in which Robert's Rules will be used for conducting TC meetings; meeting discussions should be carried on in a friendly, professional manner, and consensus should be achieved whenever possible. While TC decisions and voting should be done in an open, documented, and accountable manner, many of the details of Robert's Rules regarding precedence of motions, debate, and voting may need only to be applied if there is a dispute. Common consent should take precedence over formal motions and votes in committees, but these types of decisions must still be documented and accountable.

Other miscellaneous hints for the conduct of the meeting include:

• When a speaker is off-topic or has been going on for too long, the Chair should politely but firmly cut them off and give the floor to another speaker.
• If the Chair determines that a large number of people want to speak on a particular issue, and especially if time is short, it is appropriate to set time limits so that each speaker has an equal amount of time in which to speak.
• Without unduly restricting the right of members to speak equally, and subject to override by the members, the Chair may need to occasionally discontinue discussion.
• The meeting agenda should be approved at the beginning of the meeting. This will help keep the meeting on topic. If an off-topic subject is raised it can be put off until the end of the meeting when "new business" or "other business" is discussed.
• For each motion, amendment, or action item, etc. the Chair should clearly re-state the motion etc. before calling for comments and again before calling for a vote. This will help avoid any confusion about what is being discussed or decided.
• Before calling for vote, the Chair should make sure that everyone has had an equal opportunity to make a statement.