Robert’s Rules of Order in Iran

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2019, the ninth monthly regular meeting of the sponsors of the Main Society took place in the Cadres’ Office in Tehran. More than a decade ago (2007), the Cadres’ Office established in order to instruct and promote Robert’s Rules of Order in Iran. The inaugural workshop for this purpose took place early 2012 and the main objective of its participants was to found the first Iranian society upon Robert’s Rules of Order. The workshop continued its meetings for a while but failed to establish the purposed society because both the instructor and the students were not learned the parliamentary procedures well. More than a decade experiences were needed in order the instructor himself would understand the common parliamentary law as a modern legal system and acquire the necessary skills for presiding a deliberative assembly according parliamentary procedures.

Some sponsors of the Main Society

From right: Mr. Otaredian, Mr. golesorkhi, Mr.Baniassadi, Mr. Jamali, Mr. soltani, Mr. Razmkhah, and Mr. keykhosravi.

Robert’s Rules of Order gained a great achievement in Iran Sunday, Nov. 10, 2019: The president of the Iranian Central Bar Association ordered that the Persian translation of the book would be reproduced in a limited edition in order to gift the Association management board members. Immediately must be added that this really great achievement was resulted from more than about 7 years endeavor of some people specially Mr. Arash Keykhosravi, the first Iranian lawyer became familiar with Robert’s Rules of Order in Iran.

The three-day workshop on "Efficient Management of Employer Organizations", which was held in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the International Organization of Employers (IEO) and the Iranian Confederation of Employers’ Associations (ICEA), from Saturday to Monday, August 12 to 14, 2017, in Tehran, was an excellent opportunity to introduce the Robert’s Rules of Order.

There are currently more than 2000 employer organizations operating throughout Iran, and if the ICEA Convention is governed by the Robert’s Rules of Order, then the delegates presenting at the Convention would be familiar with these rules and would localize them at their owned assemblies they manage, and in this way, within a few years, these rules could be localized in employer organizations throughout Iran.

In addition, employer organizations are constantly communicating through social dialogue and tripartite debate with labor organizations, and it can be hoped that these rules will also be leaked in labor organizations.

However, the experience of about a decade of the trainer in the localization of these rules suggests that, contrary to expectations, the presidents and board members of the employers’ organizations resist these rules. Why? What can be done in this field? This week’s note will point to these points.

In the workshop that is held every Tuesday morning at the Cadres’ Office, the trainer outlined the main characteristics of villages and towns of Iranian Plateau and, by comparing their situation with villages and cities in Europe, explained why the possibility of the emergence of the capitalist system - as in England came into existence - it was not there in Iran.

The trainer usually describes in the cadres’ workshops how the formation of Tehran’s metropolis was possible and how the urbanization of the millions of villagers who built Tehran over the recent decades - for the first time in Iranian history-has created the ground for the formation of societies and associations whose members have equal right to vote and, as far as their needs are concerned, they will appreciate more and more this rules of order.

On Tuesday evening, the eleventh meeting of the founding session of the alumni council of the college of cinema and theater was held at the Cadres’ Office. The agenda of this session is to amend and adopt the bylaws and to establish the association based on them.

The rules of order’ trainer has carried out numerous workshops for Iranian students in recent years, and now it can be claimed that the seed of awareness of Robert’s Rules of Order has been spilled in most Iranian universities. But this is the first time that a faculty chair is also attending these workshops.

The holding of meetings of the founding session of the alumni council of the college of cinema and theater with the trainer chairmanship showed that the best way to promote the rules of the deliberative assemblies in Iran today is the same. This experience has fundamentally changed the methods of teaching and promoting these rules in Iran, and now the trainer tries to explain and document the experience of this method of promoting these rules, and more importantly, he will try to convince the authorities of existing associations and organizations in order to use the same method for localizing these rules.

The note that follows will only cover the same three last week events: