The Roberts Rules of Order is a long-standing set of procedures designed to facilitate civil discussion during meetings of any rule-making organization.

According to wikipedia.org, “A US Army officer, Henry Martyn Robert (1837-1923), saw a need for a standard of parliamentary procedure while living in San Francisco. He found San Francisco in the mid-to-late 19th Century to be a chaotic place where meetings of any kind tended to be tumultuous, with little consistency of procedure and with people of many nationalities and traditions thrown together.”

Important as part of that process during debates is to listen to the other side; focus on issues, not personalities; avoid questioning motives; and be polite.

Many times, when a person is motivated to come out to a meeting, they are motivated by anger, which is understandable. Finding time to come out to a public meeting, or multiple public meetings, is not something the average resident can easily find time to do, so it often takes strong motivation. But taking that anger out on opposing speakers, board members, or others should be avoided, particularly if they hope their opinions to be persuasive.

“You attract more bees with honey than vinegar” is an expression for a reason.

The last time The Newtown Bee felt the need to address behavior at meetings was during the book challenges, and while the current group opposing a development has been positively angelic compared to how those meetings went, it is still disappointing to hear the developer and his lawyer be openly challenged on their address (and thus their right to speak) in spite of the fact they both have the right to speak, to hear some audience members not-so-subtly call them “liars” loudly enough for other audience members to hear, scoffing at the few members of the public who speak opposing opinions, and otherwise challenging board and commission members who may feel differently than the crowd’s consensus.

All should feel welcome to speak at a town meeting. The group has often been supportive and welcoming to speakers who agree with them but struggle with public speaking, which is great and we laud them for that. While the same is not asked for opposing speakers, merely refraining from making such speaking more difficult will suffice.

The Bee offers this criticism not to demean, discourage, or to insinuate any side is bad or wrong, but to both promote a better atmosphere of cooperation and negotiation between the opposing sides as well as help encourage people to express themselves in a way that is more persuasive and beneficial to achieving their end goals — using honey and not vinegar.

Some items that participants should know as part of Robert’s Rules is that only one person should be speaking at any time. This allows all to be able to hear the relevant speaker and not have that drowned out by background chatter. Generally members of the public may interrupt a speaker for these reasons: To get information about business by declaring “point of information”; to get information about rules by declaring a “parliamentary inquiry”; if you can’t hear, safety reasons, comfort, etc by declaring a “question of privilege”; or if you see a breach of the rules by declaring a “point of order.”

Several more meetings are upcoming, all with opportunities for the public to express their opinions either for or against the development, as well as a proposed zoning regulation amendment to regulation 4.04.02 by Newtown Conservation Coalition founder Dave Ackert concerning historic preservation in the Borough of Newtown (see separate story on page 1). While the proposed text amendment won’t be applicable to the current proposed development at 20-60 Castle Hill, it could become very relevant if the current development is rejected by Borough Zoning, since it would become applicable to any future development near the section of Reservoir Road that is part of the Rochambeau Trail.

Among those opportunities are an August 1 Planning & Zoning Commission meeting that is occurring after the publication of this editorial, and will concern Ackert’s zoning amendment; the August 14 Borough Zoning meeting where the commission will make its final decision regarding the proposed amendment, as well as either the August 14 or September 18 Borough Zoning meeting, either of which could have the public hearing concerning the controversial 20-60 Castle Hill development.

The Bee encourages all who want to express their opinions on those two issues to get out and make your voices heard. Participation is always important and expressed views could help influence the commission down one path or another in its decision making. The Bee also encourages all those who do come out to be their best selves.

Honey, not vinegar.