My Phi Sigma Pi chapter meetings are run using Roberts Rules of order, but we are not silent during the meeting what so ever! If a person has a question, they are supposed to raise their hand and say "Point of Information" or "Query"
It sounds like there's not much discussion going on in your meetings. Something we often do if we feel something needs to be discussed is that the president will say, "I will now entertain a motion to open the floor for discussion of XYZ matter." A member then has to make a motion-"I motion that we discuss XYZ matter." Then the member is asked to justify their desire for the discussion, the President will ask for a Pro (reason we should discuss it) and ask it of the person who made the motion. The response to Pro is usually something like, "So we can see how the brotherhood feels about XYZ matter" or "So we can get an opinion from the brotherhood." It's then run like a pro con debate. Pro (one person says a pro), con (one person says a con) and so on until someone makes a motion to end discussion.
It works really, really, really well. Although, in some situations, our meeting have run for hours. The meeting where the exec board was elected last almost 8 hours. But, normally, our meetings are done in an hour and we also go through every officer report and every committee.
I hope that helps and can offer some useful suggestions.
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