The General’s Grandson, Henry Martyn Robert III, passed away in January 2019 and was honored at the Convention.  His life’s work was the maintenance and advancement of Robert’s Rule of Order as the preeminent guide to parliamentary procedure for deliberative assemblies.  He was a lead author for each Edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised starting in 1970.   He served the National Association of Parliamentarians (NAP) in several capacities over the years and in 2015 was named honorary NAP President.  A Eulogy was presented by Ron Stinson, past NAP President and close friend, to honor Henry and his many contributions to NAP and parliamentary society as a whole.

The Robert’s Rules Association (RRA) President, Martyn Robert Redgrave and Treasurer, Tim Redgrave attended the 2019 Convention.  Martyn made an opening address and participated on a panel discussion on civil discourse.

Three of the RRA Authorship Team also attended: Thomas (Burke) Balch, Shmuel Gerber and Daniel Seabold. They had presentations and committee work during the convention. Burke leads the subcommittee on testing for Credentialing.

To further honor the General and his grandson’s legacy, many of books and artifacts of the General and Robert’s Rules were made available to the NAP for display at the Convention by Henry Robert III’s Trust.  A separate room was set up for attendees take photos with the General’s Portrait and browse the many historical artifacts.

A new biography of General Robert was unveiled at the Convention as well. Leonard Young, past NAP President, presented a copy of his new book to Martyn and Tim of the RRA at the Convention.

Martyn and Tim really enjoyed seeing Robert’s Rules in action during the full Convention plenary sessions.  With President, James Jones, at the podium working through the agenda, restating motions, taking discussion, coordinating the voting, and much more.  It was interesting to see the delegate registration and coordination of electronic voting.  It was great to meet the officers and delegates and hear their stories of employing Robert’s Rules.