A week or two ago, the Robert’s Rules Association—which owns the rights to Robert’s Rules of Order—posted an announcement on its website that an Advanced Seminar in Parliamentary Law would be held at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel at Baltimore on October 9-10, 2006. They invited all “serious parliamentarians” to attend, for the purpose of discussing possible changes proposed for the 11th edition of RONR.

My initial reaction was negative. You see, a few months ago, the authors of RONR posted a number of official interpretations of the book, of which number 2006-12 was and is quite controversial. In an attempt to rebut this interpretation, which I felt was totally incorrect, I managed to draw myself into a mostly unproductive debate with Daniel H. Honemann, one of the authors, on the official RONR message board. Frustrated by Mr. Honemann’s refusal to directly address my arguments, I withdrew for a while from the online parliamentary scene.

Thinking that this seminar would be nothing more than another opportunity to bang my head against the brick wall of the authorship team’s official interpretations, I discussed the matter with some of my parliamentary contacts on the Internet. There was a broad diversity of opinion, including some who pointed out that this would be a rare opportunity for us to meet each other in person. It was also pointed out that an opportunity to influence the content of the next edition was too valuable to pass up over petty squabbles, or the small risk that the authors might not listen to us at all.

These discussions made me begin to reconsider my initial reaction, and encouraged me to return to the official RONR message board and start answering questions again. It wasn’t long before one appeared that touched upon the controversy of official interpretation 2006-12. I posted a reply suggesting there was some ambiguity to the answer. This led inevitably to a conversation between myself and Mr. Honemann, in which he stated that everything would be explained at the seminar, and that he genuinely hoped I would be able to attend, as my participation would be an asset.

So now I am left with a question. At a cost of just over $900 CAD, inclusive of surface transportation, airfare, hotel, and registration, plus two days of my life, would it be worth my while to attend this seminar?