Editing Robert's Rules of Order (section)

== History ==
[[File:Henry Martyn Robert.jpg|thumb|upright|Henry M. Robert]]
A U.S. 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.

The first edition of the book, whose full title was ''[[s:Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies|Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies]]'', was published in February 1876 by the then-Major Robert, with the short title ''Robert's Rules of Order'' placed on its cover.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Robert|2020}}</ref>

The procedures prescribed by the book were loosely modeled after those used in the United States House of Representatives, with such adaptations as Robert saw fit for use in ordinary societies.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Robert|2020|p=xliii}}</ref> Although he was in the military, the rules in his book were not based on military rules. The author's interest in [[parliamentary procedure]] began in 1863 when he was chosen to preside over a church meeting and, although he accepted the task, he felt that he did not have the necessary knowledge of proper procedure.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |url-status=deviated |url=https://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/Historical-Vignettes/General-History/038ChurchMeetings/ |title=Historical Vignette 038 – An Army Engineer Brought Order to Church Meetings |date=November 2001 |access-date=2015-11-25 |publisher=U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – Office of History |archive-date=2015-11-26 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151126105402/http://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/HistoricalVignettes/GeneralHistory/038ChurchMeetings.aspx }}</ref>

In his later work as an active member of several organizations, Robert discovered that members from different areas of the country had very different views regarding what the proper parliamentary rules were, and these conflicting views hampered the organizations in their work.<ref name=":2" /> He eventually became convinced of the need for a new manual on the subject, one which would enable many organizations to adopt the same set of rules.<ref name=":6" />

Henry M. Robert himself published four editions of the manual before his death in 1923, the last being the thoroughly revised and expanded Fourth Edition published as ''[[s:Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deliberative Assemblies|Robert's Rules of Order Revised for Deliberative Assemblies]]'' in May 1915.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Af4gAAAAIBAJ&pg=4218%2C4818380|title = One of the Best Sellers|date = August 22, 1917|access-date = 2015-12-01 |page=14 |via = Google News Archive|newspaper = The Day |location=New London, Connecticut}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url = https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=PexQAAAAIBAJ&pg=7375%2C3374067|title = The Man Who Wrote the Rule Book|date = December 5, 1955|access-date = 2015-11-27|via = Google News Archive Search|newspaper = The Milwaukee Journal|last = Kloss|first = Gerald }}{{deadlink|date=September 2023}}</ref> By this time Robert had long been retired from the Army with the rank of brigadier general. The revisions were based on the feedback from hundreds of letters that Robert had received through the years.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":3" /> In addition, to explain the rules in ''Robert's Rules of Order Revised'' (abbreviated ROR), Robert published an introductory book for beginners titled ''Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law'' in 1921 and a full book of explanations titled ''Parliamentary Law'' in 1923.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Parliamentary Practice: An Introduction to Parliamentary Law|last = Robert|first = Henry M.|publisher = D. Appleton-Century Company|year = 1921|location = New York|page = x|url = https://archive.org/details/parliamentarypr00robegoog}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title = Parliamentary Law|url = https://archive.org/details/parliamentarylaw00robe|last = Robert|first = Henry M.|publisher = D. Appleton-Century Company|year = 1923|location = New York|page = v}}</ref>
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