Dear Bloggers, Although Olyblog is not a deliberative body, I believe are pearls of wisdom in Robert’s Rules of Order that can facilitate debate while diffusing slander, flames, and other personal attacks.

I am the Democratic Precinct Committee Officer for a precinct that encompasses half of downtown Olympia. Each month roughly 100 members of the Thurston County Democratic Central Committee meet on the fourth Monday in a room at the Thurston County Courthouse to hash out party business. At times the debate gets quite heated. The way we maintain decorum is we have agreed to use Robert’s Rules of Order. For more details check out www.robertsrules.com.
On page 331 of the Robert’s Rules of Order ISBN 0-673-15478-8 one will find the following under the sub-heading of Decorum in Debate.
§ Refrain from attacking a member’s motivation. Stick to the text.
§ Avoid using Member’s names. i.e.”as Security_six wrote…”as opposed to “you said…”
§ Refrain from speaking adversely on a prior action not pending. Past posts are not an indication of current or future opinion. After all, one can change one’s mind.

Nothing new here, just a re-iteration of the Prime Directive: Play the ball and not the player.