Henry Martyn Robert was called on in 1863 to preside at a meeting. He was 26 years old, a civil engineer in the U.S. Army. He was reluctant to decline, but he did not know how to preside at a meeting. He accepted the duty hoping that his lack of knowledge would not be an embarrassment to himself or a disservice to those at the meeting. We don't know exactly what happened at that meeting, but we do know that he determined then to learn something about parliamentary procedure before he attended another meeting.

Over time, he developed a pocket manual of parliamentary procedure that was to be published in 1876 and known as "Robert's Rules of Order". Since then, there have been two revisions in ten editions. The current edition is Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised , 10th Edition (Nov. 2000).