The Consent Agenda: A Stake in the Heart of the Boring Meeting? Originally published in The Journal of the Masonic Society, 22 (Winter 2013). © 2013 Michael A. Halleran. All Rights Reserved. By Michael A. Halleran, Deputy Grand Master, 2013

he boring business meeting is the bane of the Masonic experience. Although our members might rave

about degree work, or fellowship, or the food (or maybe not), very few of them comment on how we need to read more minutes or recite the bills for an extra thirty minutes to deliver the truly fulfilling Masonic experience. This is not news. Masonic jurisdictions have enjoined their members to shake up their stated meetings for the last hundred years. But how? Most urge the business meeting be shortened to make way for Masonic education – a laudable pursuit, to be sure. But again, how? The bills still need paid, committees still need to report at length (whether or not they have anything to report), and the minutes must still be corrected or ratified. Depending on the meeting, I’ve seen continents move faster.

Masonic jurisdictions have enjoined their members to shake up their stated meetings for the last

hundred years. But how? Some common sense suggestions involve at least using an agenda to limit wheel-spinning and keep meetings on track. This reasoning is sound. A meeting without an agenda is a lot like a sailing without a ship – you might get where you want to go, but wind and tide will play havoc with your plans.

If meeting agendas are already old hat, Masters might consider a further refinement: the consent agenda. Used by many local governments, service organizations, and nonprofits, the consent agenda is a tool used to streamline meetings by collecting routine, non-controversial items into one item disposed of with a single motion and vote. 1

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Known as the “consent calendar” in Robert’s Rules of Order, this procedure is popular with busy boards as it limits needless discussion on commonplace items.2 In a Masonic context, if permitted by local constitutions and bylaws, routine items that are generally agreeable to all members, would be placed on each consent agenda by policy with a formal motion of the lodge: “I move that in future the following recurring items of business, ________________, be placed on a consent agenda, subject to removal at the will of any individual member, but if not removed, to be disposed of with a single vote.” If that motion is seconded, and passed, the consent agenda will be active henceforth.

The consent agenda works for lodges large or small. In lodges consisting mainly of younger members, who are likely to be in constant touch by email or social media, the Master circulates his proposed consent agenda electronically. He will receive comments back soon about whether or not the lodge members object to any proposed item. With larger lodges, or lodges in which email is still a distant glimmer of the miracles promised in the 1950s, the Master should email his draft agenda to every member with an electronic address, while distributing physical copies at the registration table for members unreachable by electronic means. In either case, the members can then consider if the suggested items are appropriate for the consent agenda.

Typical items found on lodge consent agendas include:

• Payment of normal, expected, and ordinary bills (rent, utilities, etc.) • Approval of minutes as presented or as previously amended • Acceptance of routine committee reports submitted for information and requiring no action

(building committee, event committee, etc.) • Acceptance of routine correspondence (invitations, etc.) • Approval of formal gestures (memorial contributions, letters of thanks, etc.)

Items that should never appear on a consent agenda include:

• Balloting on petitions • Referrals for Masonic charges • Elections of officers • Formal communications from Grand Lodge (if such must be read aloud)

At the stated meeting, the first order of business is a review of the consent agenda following the opening ceremonies. If any member objects to an item, the Master removes that item and assigns it to new or old business as the case may be. All remaining items not objectionable are

then formalized as the consent agenda. Moving forward, no debate is allowed, and the Master calls the question, deciding the various matters with one motion, a second, and a vote.

This simple parliamentary tool shortens business meetings dramatically. And although changing the meeting format may be anathema to members who are set in their ways, once the consent agenda becomes the habit of the lodge, any misgivings will evaporate when the members realize the significant savings of time in favor of Masonic education or other, more interesting, activities.

Further Reading Online: Board Source. The Consent Agenda: A Tool for Improving Governance.2006. http://www.uic.edu/cuppa/gci/programs/profed/online/courses/bd/week3/consent_agenda.pdf Michigan State University. “Is a Consent Agenda Right for Your Board?” http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/is_a_consent_agenda_right_for_your_board David O. Renz, Ph.D. “Consent Agenda.” Midwest Center for Nonprofit Leadership, University of Missouri-Kansas City. http://bloch.umkc.edu/mwcnl/resources/documents/consent-agenda.pdf

ABOUT THE AUTHOR The Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Kansas, Michael Halleran is also the editor of the Journal of the Masonic Society. The author of numerous articles and The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War, (Univ. of Alabama Press, 2010), Halleran has lectured on Masonic history widely in the United States and in Great Britain.

NOTES 1 The Non-Profit Center. “The Power of the Consent Agenda,” (Accessed June 18, 2013). http://www.pppnet.org/council_resources/pdfs/ConsentAgendaOverview.pdf 2 Henry M. Robert III, Wm. J. Evans, et al., eds.,. Robert’s Rules of Order, 10th, Cambridge, MA:Da Capo Press, 2000, 349-50.