(Alternatively titled: "So, you want to be one of seven people who knows how filling blanks works under Robert's Rules)
Sometimes, amendments are chaos
We’ve all been there. You’re at a board meeting or committee meeting, and there’s a motion in front of the group that proposes to spend a certain amount of money. Let’s say the proposal is to spend $5,000. Another member thinks it should be $10,000. Another thinks it should be $7,500. Another thinks it should be $500. Another thinks it should be $6,000. Maybe $750. $1,200. $3,000. A lot of us would say: “Oh jeez, this is going to be a lot of amendments. This motion is going to take literally hours, and everyone is going to get super confused.”
Using amendments over and over again (and maybe even, a few times, moving to amend other proposed amendments…), this could be a really frustrating experience for a board or committee. At a board, it could even lead to its members getting impatient with the discussion and deciding to close the debate and vote before all of the options are considered.
What if I were to tell you that there’s a device in Robert’s Rules for exactly this situation?
Ta-da! It’s time to talk about filling blanks.
An exception to “one subject at a time”
Usually, we’re only allowed to discuss one subject at a time in Robert’s Rules. So, usually we would only be allowed to discuss one of the above spending proposals at a time. By creating a blank in a motion, though, we can take suggestions from board or committee members, and discuss an unlimited number of those suggestions, all at once, before lining up all of those suggestions and putting them all to a vote to see which one reaches agreement first.
You might see, already, why this is attractive.
Under the usual method of making amendments, in the above example, the board or committee could only discuss whether to spend $5,000. Then, if an amendment is moved for $10,000, the only discussion that would be “in order” is whether to increase the amount to $10,000, but you couldn’t discuss any other numbers. Then, if an amendment is moved to reduce the amendment from $10,000 to $7,500, you could only discuss whether… you get it. It’s a mess.
However, if that $5,000 is replaced with a “blank” (literally a blank space in the motion), then the chair can collect all of those suggestions: $5,000; $7,500; $500; $6,000; $750; $1,200; and $3,000. The chair can then ask for debate on all of the suggestions at once, with board and committee members able to continue adding to the list as the debate progresses. This makes it much more likely that an informal consensus might start to appear.
Creating blanks
There are three ways to create a blank in a motion.
1 — The motion can have a blank to start with
The motion can have a blank to begin with. If the mover of a motion expects that there’s going to be a number of popular options for a specific part of their motion that might warrant suggestions from the floor, they can anticipate this and include a blank when they move the motion. A committee making a recommendation to a board might do the same.
2 — Anyone can propose to create a blank
A motion that didn’t have a blank to start with can have a blank inserted. To do this, any board or committee member can move to create a blank. In our example from above, a member would move “to create a blank by striking out $5,000.” A motion to create a blank needs a seconder, and the chair might want to offer a brief procedural explanation to members, but the motion to create a blank itself can’t be amended, and it’s not debatable. The chair goes straight to a vote, and if a majority of members agree, then that $5,000 is changed to a blank.
The $5,000 isn’t forgotten, though — it automatically becomes the first suggestion. (And if there were amendments at play, like if a motion to amend to $10,000 had been moved, and a motion to reduce that amendment to $7,500 had been moved as well, then $10,000 and $7,500 also become suggestions, and now you already have three suggestions to kick things off.)
3 — The chair can just plead for a blank
The chair might see chaos on the horizon, and suggest to the board or committee that creating a blank might just be the best way to reach a decision. If the chair thinks that this would make for a more effective decision-making process, then they should test whether this is possible by unanimous consent, by saying something like: “I think it would be best if we created a blank in place of the $5,000, and took suggestions for other amounts from board members, including this initial proposal of $5,000 — is there unanimous consent?” If there is, then yay! If a single member objects, though, then you’d need to use a motion to create a blank, as described above.
Taking suggestions
Once a blank has been created by one of the procedures described above, it’s suggestion-collecting time. The original number or phrase, if there was one, becomes the first suggestion, and any amendments that were happening at the time also become suggestions.
When the chair invites suggestions, members can basically “shout out” their suggestions, and the chair repeats each suggestion to make sure it’s correct, and asks for more. A member can only make one suggestion (or as many suggestions as there are blanks, if the motion has multiple blanks), unless everyone else has had an opportunity to make a suggestion.
(The “shout out” rule does not apply if a member wants to both make a suggestion and participate in debate — if they want to say anything other than just the suggestion, they need to be recognized by the chair or get on the speaker’s list in the usual way.)
Discussing all the options
Once it looks like all of the suggestions are in, the chair facilitates debate as they would for debate on any other motion. During this debate, all of the suggestions are open to discussion, and if a member realizes they have a new discussion, they can continue to offer a suggestion (or up to as many suggestions as there are blanks, if there are more than one) when recognized to speak.
It might become clear as the debate progresses that there is, in fact, an emerging consensus on one of the suggestions that was made — and this consensus might never have been reached if the group had followed the usual process of amending the motion over, and over, and over again.
Making a decision
When it looks like the debate has wrapped up, and the chair has checked and ensured that there are no members remaining who want to discuss the motion anymore, then it’s time for the chair to put all of these great suggestions we’ve collected to a vote. Let’s talk about how that process works, because it’s a bit different than just voting on an amendment.
If there aren’t enough, or there are no, suggestions
If there aren’t enough suggestions to complete a motion, then the board or committee should really keep going until they have enough suggestions for the motion to make sense. This doesn’t always happen, though. If a motion passes while it still has a blank in its final text, then it basically locks up your board or committee — the board or committee isn’t allowed to consider anything else (except for privileged motions, like to recess) until remaining blanks are filled.
If there are just enough suggestions
If no vote is needed because there are only as many suggestions as there are blanks, then the chair can just declare that the suggestions are adopted by unanimous consent, and no one needs to worry about the voting procedure stuff that we’re about to talk about.
Figure out the voting order
The first thing that the chair needs to do, if there are too many suggestions for the number of blank spaces available in the motion, is to determine the order in which suggestions are going to be voted on. Here are a few rules that Robert’s Rules has for deciding the order for voting on suggestions. In general, the chair orders suggestions from least likely to most likely to succeed:
For spending money, you’d order the numbers from largest (most expensive) to smallest (least expensive), under the assumption that boards want to save money where they can.
For receiving money, such as setting the sale price for a building or property, you’d order the numbers from smallest (the lowest sale price, and therefore the least revenue) to the largest (the highest sale price, and therefore the most revenue).
For dates, from the further-away date until the soonest date.
For numbers of people, from the most people to the least people (for example, if there’s a blank for suggestions on how many people should be in a delegation, or how many people should attend a conference, or the size of a proposed committee).
People are an exception, because it would obviously be pretty rude for the chair to make a guess for which members would be the “least likely” to be voted onto a committee or elected to an office, and so when nominating people, the order in which the suggestions are voted on is always going to be in the order in which the people were suggested. (If there were names included in a motion before a blank was inserted, those names are considered first.)
Blanks can be for suggestions of almost any kind, so the above rules for how to order the suggestions for a decision aren’t always going to be helpful — if none of these rules apply, then the chair can always just arrange the suggestions by the order in which they were proposed.
It’s voting time
When the chair has determined the order in which the suggestions are going to be decided, the chair takes a vote on each suggestion, one-by-one, in that order. If there is only one blank to be filled, then the first suggestion to receive a majority vote in favour is adopted, and the rest of the suggestions are dropped, ignored, and forgotten forever. If there is more than one blank, then as soon as a corresponding number of suggestions are accepted, then the rest are dropped.
Let’s do our above example
Let’s step through how our starting example would work in a meeting.
Chair: “It’s been moved, and seconded, that the society spend $5,000 on hot chocolate.”
Chris raises their hand.
Chair: “Chris?”
Chris: “I move to amend the motion to strike out ‘$5,000’ and insert ‘$10,000.’”
Anna-Elaine: “Second!”
Chair: “It’s been moved, and seconded, that the motion be amended by striking out ‘$5,000,’ and inserting ‘$10,000.’ Debate is now on whether to increase the amount from $5,000 to $10,000.”
Joshua raises their hand.
Chair: “Joshua?”
Joshua: “That’s too high. I move to strike ‘$10,000’ from the amendment, and to insert ‘$7,500’ instead.”
Grace: “Second!”
Chair: “Alrighty then. It’s moved, and seconded, that the amendment be amended by striking out ‘$10,000’ and inserting ‘$7,500.’”
Andrew raises their hand.
Chair: “Andrew?”
Andrew: “I’m worried that this is going to quickly descend into amendment chaos, and so I move to strike out ‘$5,000’ from the main motion to create a blank.”
Shanti: “Second!”
Chair: “Thank everything that is good. It’s been moved, and seconded, that ‘$5,000’ be struck from the main motion to create a blank. This is not debatable. If adopted, we’ll accept $5,000, $10,000, and $7,500 as our first suggestions to bill a blank. All those in favour of creating a blank?”
Members vote.
Chair: “All those opposed?”
Members vote.
Chair: “It looks like the ayes have it, and the motion to strike $5,000 and create a blank is adopted. We will take $5,000, $10,000, and $7,500 as the first suggestions. Are there any other suggestions for how much should be spent on hot chocolate?”
Grace: “$500.”
Chair: “Okay, we have a suggestion for $500. Any others?”
Trevor: “$6,000, or $750!”
Chair: “I can only take one suggestion at a time from you, Trevor. Which do you prefer?”
Trevor: “Okay, I’ll do $6,000 for now.”
Chair: “Okay, a suggestion for $6,000. Any further suggestions?”
Andrew: “I’ll suggest $1,200.”
Chair: “Okay, we have another suggestion of $1,200. Any others?”
Joshua: “How about $3,000 for hot chocolate?”
Chair: “Alright, $3,000 is added to the list. Any others?”
Trevor: “Can I make another suggestion?”
Chair: “One moment, Trevor. Does anyone who hasn’t made a suggestion wish to offer one? No? Okay, Trevor, go ahead and offer another suggestion.”
Trevor: “I’ll add $750.”
Chair: “Okay. Any other suggestions? No, I’m not hearing any. Okay, give us a moment.”
The chair compiles and orders the suggestions.
Chair: “The suggestions for the amount that the society will spend on hot chocolate are $10,000; $7,500; $6,000; $5,000; $3,000; $1,200; $750; and $500. Is there any debate?”
Grace raises their hand.
Chair: “Grace?”
Grace: “I love hot chocolate. That is all.”
Chair: “Any further debate? Seeing none, just to remind everyone, the motion in front of us is for the society to spend a certain sum on hot chocolate, and we are considering suggestions to fill a blank for what that sum should be if the board then later decides to purchase the hot chocolate. In the order of highest to lowest, shall ‘$10,000’ fill the blank? All those in favour?”
Members vote.
Chair: “All those opposed to $10,000?”
Members vote.
Chair: “‘$10,000’ is not accepted. All those in favour of ‘$7,500?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “All those opposed to ‘$7,500?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “‘$7,500’ is not accepted. All those in favour of ‘$5,000?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “All those opposed to ‘$5,000?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “‘$5,000’ is not accepted. All those in favour of ‘$3,000?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “All those opposed to ‘$3,000?’”
Members vote.
Chair: “We have a majority in favour! $3,000 will fill the blank, and we’ll stop there. Debate now resumes on the motion for the society to spend $3,000 on hot chocolate.”
Conclusion
Filling blanks can be a way of allowing a less structured, consensus-building conversation around a decision that strikes a balance between having the highest impact that remains within the comfort level of a majority of a board or committee’s members. What do you think? Are there use cases for this that you can picture within your own board or committee? Let me know! Want more examples of when this might be helpful? Let me know that too!
About the author
I'm currently the executive director of the Capilano Students’ Union, and I have over a decade of experience in executive and management-level leadership roles. I'm a shameless “good governance” nerd (board governance is tasty), a video game nerd (I'm considering demolishing his Animal Crossing: New Horizons island and restarting), a politics watcher, and someone weirdly interested in privacy management and health & safety.
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