An Online Course to Help You Understand Business Meeting Rules
Learn how to have efficient, productive, and fair business meetings that make a difference.
Are You Frustrated, Confused, or Overwhelmed During Business Meetings?
- Robert’s Rules of Order feels like a foreign language (who’s Robert?!)
- Parliamentary procedure seems overly complex
- You’re tired of conversations where one person dominates
- You’re a board chair and you’re not sure what to say when
- You’re a board member and you want to know how to make a motion
- You’ve had enough of the member who keeps saying, “Point of Order!”
- The chair of your group is controlling and abusive
- You’re tasked with taking minutes and you’re not sure what to include
This course gives you accessible answers to all these situations and more. Every video is packed with step-by-step help so that you can understand the rules of meetings, speak up with confidence, and effectively influence your group’s decisions.
Civility’s Training Resources Are Used by Thousands of Members in All Types of Organizations
School Boards
City and County Councils
Homeowners Associations
Non-Profit Organizations
Unions
Political Parties
Universities
Greek Organizations
For-Profit Corporations
Religious Groups and Churches
MEET YOUR GUIDE
Sarah E. Merkle, CEO
Attorney
Certified Professional Parliamentarian-Teacher
Professional Registered Parliamentarian
Few people understand and know how to teach business meeting rules like Sarah Merkle. As one of five lawyers in the world with her credentials, she’s attended more business meetings than she can count, and she’s helped thousands of people learn the rules.
Sarah is engaging, and she knows how to make the rules easy-to-understand. She’s worked with all types of individuals and organizations—from industry leading national groups to municipal boards and local non-profits. Sarah helps people learn rules that give them confidence to participate in meetings and influence
decisions. Now she’s ready to help you.
Thank you so much for the well done, informative, and delightful presentation you gave to us. Uniformly among all attendees, your presentation was well received.
Amazing job on the parliamentary procedure webinar. Not only did it run smoothly, but you made a dense and dry topic interesting and accessible. You got 300 ‘hearts’—which I think is a first for Robert’s Rules!
Sarah’s explanations [are] the best I’ve heard in a long time.
Everything Sarah presented today was explained in a way that was easy to understand.
I wish I’d had [this information] early on when I was serving as president of the school board and other organizations. I was known for having quick and efficient meetings, but this would have taken it to a new level.
10 out of 10. Phenomenal training! This should be made mandatory for all elected officials.
Sarah is knowledgeable and made this very informative and fun! Loved it!
Very easy to go from zero to knowledgeable.
Fabulous! A wealth of knowledge. Sarah’s presentation was clear, crisp, to the point. Very easy to absorb.
Sarah gives an excellent primer, especially about secondary motions and how they work together.
Loved Sarah’s tips on being organized, energized, and prepared to speak in a respectful and orderly manner.
The most important thing I learned was the order of precedence for motions and how those work.
I know a lot about Robert’s Rules already, but it is great to have a refresher. I like the nesting dolls comparison—it’s a great visual.
What Do I Get with This Course?
8 Topical Modules
Watch and learn.
Course videos can be watched in any order—whenever it works for your schedule. Each of the 8 modules covers foundational aspects of business meetings. The segments walk through major sections of Robert’s Rules and tell you exactly how to run meetings well.
41 On-Demand Lessons
Keeping it short.
With an average lesson length of just 7 minutes, these bite-sized videos give you precise answers to the most common problems faced during a meeting. Watch lessons according to what is helpful. The segments are not sequential, so as you encounter situations with your board, watch the parts that are immediately relevant.
Downloadable Infographics
For the visual learner.
The beautiful “extras” that come with this course are worth every penny. User-friendly, ready-reference infographics supplement the course so that the abstract concepts of parliamentary procedure make sense. Print them out to bring to your next meeting.
Real-World Illustrations
Here’s an example.
Many lessons include real-life scenarios—descriptions of typical business meeting problems and best-practice solutions. Hard-to-understand concepts are explained, then brought to life with practical, step-by-step tips for applying the rules in your context.
Business Meeting Basics Video Course
Explore the places where business meeting rules are found and when certain rules apply. Learn why the rules are still relevant and the foundational principles behind them.
Explore the ins and outs of calling a meeting, making and changing an agenda, and ensuring enough people are present to make decisions.
Learn how a group takes official action through motions. Practice making different types of motions.
Develop your knowledge of motions further by learning how to make amendments, close debate, and postpone consideration of a topic. Learn how to make a point of order!
Become skilled at participating in discussion effectively, and if you’re the chair, facilitating it fairly. Learn how to keep discussion confidential.
Master the methods for taking and counting votes. Understand how to deal with abstentions! Learn how to tabulate a ballot vote.
Explore the different types of committees and how they are formed. Learn how to lead a committee meeting and draft an effective committee report.
Never question the content of minutes again! Know what to include and what to leave out. Understand how and when to approve minutes.