Services

Parliametarian
The role of a parliamentarian is to advise an organization’s presiding officer during meetings on the proper application of the rules that govern procedure at the meeting.  This requires significant consultation before the meeting, and typically preparation of a script.

Professional Presiding Officer
A professional presiding officer is a skilled parliamentarian who temporarily substitutes for a group’s usual presider in such circumstances as when there are deep divisions within the organization and it is felt an expert outsider will better give the appearance of impartiality, or when the group must deal with particularly intricate issues such as adopting a bylaws revision or conducting disciplinary procedures. Some organizations, such as condominiums or time-shares, routinely use a professional presiding officer at their annual meetings.

Floor Parliamentarian
An individual member, or more commonly a group of members, may retain a parliamentarian to provide advice on how properly to use the rules to accomplish an objective the client wishes to achieve during a meeting.

Bylaws Consultant
A parliamentarian can either or both:

• Review bylaws to identify inconsistencies, ambiguities, or deviations from best practice and prepare draft amendments to address these.
• Assist a bylaws committee or others to prepare bylaws amendments, a bylaws revision, or original bylaws to accomplish the objectives desired.

Parliamentary Opinions
A parliamentarian can prepare a professional parliamentary opinion letter or memorandum addressing an issue or issues involving the proper interpretation of the governing rules.

Teaching/Training
A parliamentarian can:

• coach a presiding officer, or incoming presiding officer, on effective presiding techniques and proper application of the rules.
• provide a group workshops on topics ranging from basic meeting rules through board best practices to training on advanced parliamentary topics.

When litigation or potential litigation involves issues of parliamentary procedure, a parliamentarian can provide analysis and consultation to attorneys, and may serve as an expert witness to provide an affidavit or testimony in court.

Normally, an attorney preparing for or considering litigation retains the parliamentarian as a consultant to provide an independent and unbiased assessment of the issues of parliamentary procedure at issue. The parliamentarian’s report—which when provided as a consultant normally is not discoverable by the opposing party—may assist the attorney in deciding whether to bring, settle, or contest litigation.

When the parliamentarian’s report as consultant supports the position of the attorney’s client on the key parliamentary procedure issues, the attorney may then decide to retain the parliamentarian as an expert witness,[1] which may involve either or both of preparing an affidavit or testifying in court.

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[1] If a parliamentarian who provided a report as a consultant is thereafter retained as an expert witness, the report as consultant usually then becomes subject to discovery.