Kent City Council gets training on running meetings

The Kent City Council received a lesson in how to run meetings more efficiently.

The council hired Ann Macfarlane of Seattle-based Jurassic Parliament to give a 90-minute session at its Tuesday night workshop about the proper way to run and conduct meetings. Several members of the city’s Neighborhood Councils program also attended the workshop for tips on running their meetings.

“Ann is going to teach us about running an effective meeting,” Council President Bill Boyce said at the start of the workshop. “That doesn’t mean we don’t run an effective meeting, it means we just want to get better.”

Macfarlane started her business in 2000 and trains elected officials, staff and nonprofit board members throughout the nation. She is a professional registered parliamentarian, offered by the National Association of Parliamentarians, a group that encourages people to learn the principles and practice of democratic decision-making. Her credential puts her among those with the highest level of proficiency in the practice of parliamentary procedure and the ability to provide consulting services to many organizations, according to the group’s website.

The council paid Macfarlane a $750 fee plus mileage for the workshop, according to city staff. The council spent general fund money to cover the costs.

Macfarlane had five members of the council, two city staff members and three audience volunteers play the role of a fantasy city council in a fantasy city to go through the different steps about how to properly run meetings. They make sure each member is given a chance to speak, so no member or chair dominates a session.

“In some respects, this is a fantasy,” said Macfarlane, who served as mayor of the made-up city and brought tiny toy dinosaurs to the session to help emphasize certain points. “We’re going to talk about meeting discussion and how to have meaningful discussions. It’s a fantasy but there is overlap of real life.”

During the workshop, Macfarlane broke down for the council, “Robert’s Rule of Order,” a book written in 1876 by U.S. Army Maj. Henry Martyn Robert that still serves as a guide about how to conduct meetings and make decisions as a group. Members of Robert’s family have revised the book numerous times.

Macfarlane, who has written “Mastering Council Meetings,” a guidebook for elected officials and local governments, emphasized that the council needs to make sure that discussion about a topic doesn’t become a conversation.

“This rule is perhaps the most important rule for discussion that we know of,” she said. “No one may speak a second time until everyone who wishes to do so has spoken once.”

She said councils have found that simple rule can greatly impact meetings.

“People have cut their meeting time in half by applying this rule,” Macfarlane said. “And yet somehow we don’t want to do it and I don’t really know why. But councils tend to discuss their affairs in conversational mode. And in conversations, dominate people tend to dominate and agreeable people tend to let them.

“You must have a structure to make sure everyone has an equal chance to speak. This is both fair and efficient.”

Macfarlane also focused on making sure other council members speak out if a rule isn’t followed.

“A member can make a point of order, a claim that a mistake has been made,” she said.

Boyce summarized the workshop later Tuesday at the regular council meeting.

“We had lots of fun today,” Boyce said about the role playing. “Ann talked about how to conduct a meeting. … I think we all learned a lot. I think we all will benefit from this. It was an absolute pleasure to have her here. And we will continue to check each other out to make sure we properly run our meetings.”