How to organise & run your meetings
Why should you have meetings?
Meetings help analyse and solve problems, generate creative ideas, pass on information, make decisions, discuss goals, and evaluate progress. Meetings can be really informal get-togethers, extremely formal structured debates, or anything in between. Whatever sort of meeting you're having, there's a lot you can do to make it go well. With a little planning, meetings can be really effective and even run themselves!
BEFORE THE MEETING
Be clear about your aims:
• Why are you holding the meeting? If it has no clear purpose, the participants will see it as a waste of time and you may lose their interest for good!
• What sort of meeting will it be - an informal discussion or a sit down meeting with an agenda?
• Make sure everyone knows what you want to achieve beforehand, so that people can prepare and participate more fully. If the meeting won't involve your members discussing an issue, consider sending out an email or putting information online instead.
Decide who to invite:
• Who needs to be there? Is it an Ordinary General Meeting open to all members, just for the Committee, or a relevant sub-group?
• People have different views and opinions - it's a fact! This doesn't mean you should avoid inviting people if you can see they might disagree about an issue - just make sure the meeting is well run and that everyone has their say. Having a variety of opinions is much better than only inviting people who will agree with you!
Choose a location and time:
• Rooms are available for meetings and can be booked in advance. Read More
• Consider the needs of the people who will be attending. Does it need to be an unlicensed venue; do you need special access for people with disabilities?
• Timing is important. Set an end time as well as a start time; this allows people to plan around the meeting
Set an agenda - and stick to it!
• If your meeting is very informal, you may not need an agenda. It always helps though to have a plan of what you want to achieve, and it's a good idea to make a note of what has been decided! For a more formal meeting, an agenda lets people know what will be discussed, and helps the Chair steer the meeting in a logical and structured way.
• Ask people to contribute agenda items well in advance of the meeting. Then the secretary should send out the agenda along with details of the meetings purpose, date, start and end time and location, and copies of any reports etc. to be considered.
Suggested agenda items:
I. Apologies from people who can't attend - so you don't waste time
waiting for them.
II. Matters Arising from the minutes of the last meeting. (Usually comments and reports about ongoing projects and checking on what was said at the last meeting).
III. Discussion Topics including anything that needs discussing and agreeing (e.g. Committee Members Reports, Financial Update, etc).
IV. Any Other Business - speaks for itself!
V. Date, Time Place - of next meeting
AT THE MEETING – Roles & responsibilities
Chairperson
The chair is responsible for ensuring that all members can have their say, that the agenda is followed and that the meeting is calm and constructive. Other responsibilities include:
• Greeting members and thanking them for attending
• Ensuring that new members and guests are introduced
• Making sure the meeting starts (and ends) on time, and that everybody knows the schedule for the meeting
• Setting some ground rules - e.g. "all participants views should be listened to respectfully, and not interrupted"
• Sticking to the agenda!
• Keeping to the topics that are to be discussed. If the conversation begins to drift the chair needs to bring peoples attention back to the issues at hand
• Summarising discussions and decisions in order to clarify and reiterate key points for the minutes
Secretary
The Secretary is responsible for compiling and issuing the agenda and recording the meeting, usually in the form of "minutes". Minutes should include:
• Who attended
• Action items - the task, the person responsible, and the date to be completed by (if applicable)
• Decisions which affect the group as a whole
• Open issues that have been raised but not resolved, to be carried over to a future meeting
AT THE END OF THE MEETING
• Ensure that members understand and are able to carry out their responsibilities
• Give recognition and appreciation to members for excellent progress
• Put unfinished business on the agenda for the next meeting
• Evaluate - discuss with other members any problems that occurred during the meeting, perhaps brainstorm ways that improvements could be made.
AFTER THE MEETING
• Minutes should be typed up and distributed within 2-3 days
• Delegated tasks should be monitored to ensure that people are doing them