Using Antragsgrün with Robert’s Rules of Order

Overview

Robert’s Rules of Order (RRO) is the most widely used parliamentary authority for conventions, associations, and nonprofit boards. While Antragsgrün was not built for one specific rulebook, its core concepts - motions, amendments, seconding, speaking lists, and votings - map naturally onto the procedures described by Robert’s Rules. This page explains how the terminology matches and how to set up and run a meeting accordingly.

Note: some features described on this page (the “Currently debated” section and secondary motions raised from the floor) are part of a new module that is currently under development and will be released as part of Antragsgrün 4.18.

How Robert’s Rules concepts map to Antragsgrün

Robert’s Rules of Order	Antragsgrün
Session / meeting	A Consultation. Each convention or board meeting gets its own consultation; one Antragsgrün site can host many of them, e.g. one per year or per body.
Order of business / agenda	The Agenda on the consultation home page. Motions can be assigned to agenda items, and general debate items (“Welcome”, reports, elections) are simply agenda items without motions.
Main motion	A Motion. Motion types define who may submit them (all members, logged-in users, admins, specific user groups) and whether they are submitted in advance of the meeting or during it.
Amendment / secondary amendment	An Amendment to a motion; amendments to amendments are supported as well and can be enabled per motion type. Antragsgrün shows the proposed change as a diff to the original text.
Second (seconding a motion)	A Supporter. Configure the motion type to “collect supporters before publication” with a minimum of one supporter: a raised motion then only proceeds once another member has seconded it. With automatic submission enabled, no further action of the mover is needed after the second.
Subsidiary, privileged and incidental motions (Point of Order, Postpone, Refer to Committee, Previous Question, Recess, Adjourn, ...)	Secondary motions: regular motions of dedicated motion types that are hidden from the home page listings. They are raised from the floor through the “Currently debated” section via a simplified form; whether they need a second and whether they carry a text is configured per motion type. The kind (“Point of Order”, “Motion to Recess”, ...) is a selectable label.
Obtaining the floor / recognition by the chair	Speaking lists. Members apply for the floor online; the chairperson grants it by starting the next slot. Speaking lists can be attached to the currently debated motion, amendment, or agenda item.
Speaking for / against a motion	Sub-queues of a speaking list, e.g. “In favor” and “Against”, so the chair can alternate between the two sides as Robert’s Rules recommend. Other sub-queue schemes (e.g. gender quotas) are possible too.
Limits on debate (length of speeches)	The speaking time setting of a speaking list, including a visible countdown.
Putting the question / taking a vote	A Voting. Yes/No/Abstention votings on motions, amendments, or free-form questions, with configurable majority (simple majority, two-thirds, ...), configurable eligibility (user groups), and configurable visibility of the individual votes (secret ballot vs. roll call).
Quorum	The quorum settings of a voting, based on the number of eligible or present members.
Chair / presiding officer	A user with the debate moderation privilege (or a consultation admin). This privilege can be granted through a user group, so the chair does not need full administrative rights.

Before the meeting

Create a consultation for the session and set up the agenda reflecting the order of business.
Create a motion type for main motions. Configure who may submit them and, if motions require a second, enable the supporter-collection phase with a minimum of one supporter and automatic submission once it is reached.
Create motion types for secondary motions you want to allow from the floor - for example one type “Point of Order” (no second required, no text) and one type “Procedural motion” (second required, optional text) covering Postpone, Recess, Previous Question and the like. Mark these types as hidden from the home page.
Enable the “Currently debated” section on the home page in the consultation’s appearance settings, and configure the speaking-list sub-queues (“In favor” / “Against”).
Grant the chair the debate moderation privilege via a user group, and set up the user groups of the voting members so votings can be restricted to them.

During the meeting

The chairperson selects the item under consideration - a motion, an amendment, or an agenda item. It is immediately shown to all participants in the “Currently debated” section of the home page.
Members apply for the floor in the “In favor” or “Against” queue; the chair works through the speaking list, alternating between the sides.
Members can raise secondary motions (e.g. a Point of Order or the Previous Question) directly from the widget. If the kind requires a second, it becomes pending once another member seconds it, and the chair is notified prominently.
The chair can switch the debate to a pending secondary motion, attach a speaking list to it, or start a voting on it with a few clicks - and afterwards resume the interrupted main motion.
When debate is closed, the chair puts the question: a voting on the amendment(s) and then on the main motion. The result determines the status (adopted / rejected), and adopted texts can be published as resolutions.

What Antragsgrün deliberately does not do

Some aspects of Robert’s Rules of Order are currently not supported, partly because there was not need for a technical solution yet by parties using the system, partly because it's just not implemented yet. What's not supported:

Protocols / Writing the Minutes (Previous minutes can be published, but Antragsgrün does not provide an automated way to create them at the moment)
Enforcing a special order of precedence of motions. This is left to the chair.
Elections of persions.