PASSED MOTION BY RECORDED VOTE (14-3) EO26.1.1 Effective Meetings and Governance

SUMMARY
TDSB’s PIAC as per its bylaw utilizes Robert’s Rules of Order (12th Ed.) which provides guidelines that protect the rights of individual members, the majority, the minority, absentees, and all parties as a whole. This report has a recommendation to adopt a summary document which has the most important points of Robert’s Rules of Order and aligns with PIAC Bylaws to support holding effective meetings and ensure respectful, equal, and fair treatment for all members.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The Co-leads of the Operational Effectiveness Working Group proposes that PIAC adopt the following recommendations:

Recommendations to PIAC
PIAC adopt the proposed PIAC Meeting Rules of Order document as drafted in Appendix to support
effective meetings.

FINANCIAL IMPACT
There is no financial impact to PIAC resulting from the adoption of the recommendations in this report.

DECISION HISTORY
PIAC adopted revised bylaws on May 6, 2025, which included the clause “1.2.1 The rules contained in
the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall govern PIAC in all cases to which they
are applicable and in which they are not inconsistent with these bylaws and any special rules of order
PIAC may adopt.”

COMMENTS
The PIAC Meeting Rules of Order (see Appendix A) is a summary of Robert’s Rules of Order as
published in Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised 12th Edition (2020) and SparkCharts Robert’s Rules
of Order (2014). The document summarizes the most important and frequently used points of Robert’s
Rules of Order and aligns with PIAC Bylaws to support holding effective meetings and ensure respectful,
equal, and fair treatment for all members. The document contains the following sections:

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Principles of Robert’s Rules of Order
• Rules and Decorum in Debate
• Duties of the Presiding Officer (Chair of the Committee or Lead of the Working Group)
• Standard 8 Descriptive Characteristics of a Motion
• Thirteen Ranking Motions
• Moving a Main Motion (Recommendation)
• Incidental Motions
• Voting
  
  In the document the highlighted green sections indicate special rules that PIAC is making that differ from Robert’s Rules of Order. The special rules are consistent with the PIAC Bylaws and recognize the size of the Committee being over 50 members and required to support effective meetings and decision making by the Committee. The highlighted yellow sections denote the titles of the types of motion that a member can move and are highlighted to support the document being used during meetings to ensure members can full participating in debate.
  
  SPONSOR & CO-SPONSORS
  
  Sponsor: Andrew Waters, PIAC Secretary and Co-lead Membership Working Group.
  Co-sponsors: Mercy Charles, PIAC Treasurer and Co-lead Strategic Planning Working Group.
  
  SIGNATURE
  Kaydeen Bankasingh and Prasanna Jagannathan, Co-leads Operational Effectiveness Working Group
  
  APPENDICES
  Appendix A: PIAC Meeting Rules of Order (see: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qQVdfW-RjEHt-P-F-YpabmrjGdTeKhOp/view?usp=drive_link)