Running an Effective Meeting

Transcription

1 Running an Effective Meeting Training Module February 2009 P a g e 1 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

2 Module-Running an Effective Meeting Presentation Time: 42 min Trainers Notes / Hints Trainer Script Time: 12 minutes max Welcome to the Canadian Parents for French training session on Running an Effective Meeting. My name is. Thank you for volunteering your time to CPF and for being with us today. Handout: Agenda Icebreaker Instruction: Explain the amenities and write down their expectations and questions about the module The amenities are: Items Cell phones Washrooms How to leave classroom Behaviour Instruction Turn off cell phones Location If you must leave the class room please do so in a quiet manner as to not disrupt the training session Do not have side conversations causing disruption for others Supplies: Notes: Let s get to know one another with an Icebreaker. We are going to take a few minutes to write down your expectations and questions of this training session. At the end of the training session we will return to this page and see if we covered everything on the list. What you will learn today: 1. How to run an effective meeting 2. What is in a basic agenda P a g e 2 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

3 Section Opening Statement Running an effective meeting can be challenging if we don t follow some specific guidelines. You know the only way to get the most out of your time is to spend it wisely, and you want to make every second you have count. When it comes to meetings, the way to be efficient and effective simultaneously is to prepare and make good use of an agenda. Time: 30 min But before you get to the agenda you need to: Let people make the transition Meetings are most productive when people interact and collaborate as much as they can. The problem is that it s often difficult to make the transition from working at your desk on your own, to the emotional roller coaster of a highly collaborative event. You need to facilitate that transition by setting aside 5-10 minutes of open time to let people warm up to one another. Let them make small talk and get into the socializing mode. When you get down to business, you ll find people more willing to open up and contribute their minds to the meeting Before you begin Meeting minutes record what everyone agreed on and what has to be done. Minutes help prevent people from leaving a meeting with different views of what happened and what s supposed to happen next. P a g e 3 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

4 At the beginning of the meeting appoint someone to take the minutes. It might be a good idea to have people take turns. Don t worry about taking exhaustive notes about who said what. Focus instead on the points that matter most: Decisions reached Action items to follow up on Open issues Keep it short, since you don t want to spend too much time writing it, and make people spend too much time reading it. Understanding the agenda An agenda is essentially a program or listing of the events and items of business that will come before the meeting. It may be a detailed program covering several meetings in a session, or it may be a short list of the items of business to be handled in a routine board meeting. The agenda may (but doesn't have to) indicate the hour for each event, or it may just show the total time allotted to each item. The agenda may be adopted (that is, be made binding on the meeting), or it may simply be a guide to keep the meeting on track. Adopting your agenda is sometimes a good idea because it gets everybody in agreement with the meeting plan at the beginning of the meeting. Have all the facts Do you have all the information and infrastructure you need to conduct a meeting? Organize your papers, facts and presentations so they re easy to retrieve. P a g e 4 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

5 If you need to make a presentation or refer to online content, make sure the computer network is up and running in the meeting room, all the required applications are installed and running, and the projector and screens are all in place and working. And most importantly, make sure you have all the log-in codes you need to access network resources. Structure the agenda The best kept secret to keeping your meeting on track and your time and discussions under control. Have a structured agenda and stick to it. Have a schedule of who has to speak, and when, and that will help you avoid the deadly silence and furtive looks when you ask So, who wants to go first? At the minimum, a good agenda should include: The main purpose of the meeting, such as We need to brainstorm on ideas for the new company intranet. The key topics you want to discuss, organized in chronological order. Who will lead or speak on which parts of the discussion. When he or she will speak. The time allocated for each part of the discussion. What the expected outcomes are. P a g e 5 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

6 However, even the most structured agenda won t stop people from wandering off topic. Effective meeting leaders keep meetings focused without killing creativity or reprimanding people who stray. Use a holding area whiteboard to record and track useful comments or questions that aren t related to the issue at hand. SOME ADDITIONAL AGENDA ITEMS MIGHT BE: Call to order When the time comes, start the meeting on time. A single rap of the gavel at the appointed hour and the declaration, "The meeting will come to order" is sufficient. You can't finish on time if you don't start on time, and everybody knows when the meeting starts. A good Chair is known for starting meetings on time and will always be respected for doing so. Roll call If your group is a public body, or if you have a rule that certain officers must be in attendance before the meeting can proceed, this is the time to call the roll. But if you don't have a rule requiring it, you shouldn't waste your time on this item. Standard order of business Everything on the agenda outside of the standard order of business is really just secondary to the meeting. All the business really begins with the approval of the minutes, and ends when you're finished with any new business. P a g e 6 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

7 Program If you're offering some other general presentation of interest to your members, whether it's a film, a guest speaker, a lecturer, or any other program, it should be presented before the meeting is adjourned. If you would rather conduct the program at some other place in the agenda, it may be scheduled to take place before the minutes are read or, by suspending the rules, inserted within the standard order of business. Guest speakers are often on tight schedules, so it's quite proper for the chair to ask for unanimous consent to place the program at any convenient place on the agenda, even if the only convenient place is within the order of business. Good of the order This is a time set aside for members to offer comments or observations (without formal motions) about the society and its work. The good of the order is also the time to offer a resolution to bring a disciplinary charge against a member for offenses committed outside of a meeting. Announcements This portion of the basic agenda sets aside time for officers (and members, when appropriate) to make announcements. However, the fact that this is an agenda item does not prevent the chair from making an emergency announcement at any time. Close the loop Give a short summary of the main points discussed in the meeting. This will help refresh memories and bring everyone back to the present. Go from talking about it to doing it. P a g e 7 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

8 Assign a person and a deadline to every action item you ve identified. Review with each person which specific steps he or she is responsible for and emphasize the due date for the completion of each step. Set the date of your next meeting to receive status reports on everyone s next steps, to track progress and address problems. Set aside five minutes at the end of the meeting to get feedback. What really worked well in the meeting? What didn t? Adjourn This part of the agenda marks the end of the meeting time to go home. But don't leave until the chair declares the meeting adjourned, or you may just miss something important. Robert's Rules' basic agenda Robert gives us an order of business but doesn't mandate any particular agenda. However, he does give us an agenda protocol that has been so widely used that it's almost universally accepted as a fundamental meeting plan. Your agenda may be more extensive and detailed. But in its own right, the basic agenda is a great arrangement of events, consistent with the standard order of business discussed; you can find it at the heart of just about every good business meeting you ever attend. Organizations using parliamentary procedure usually follow a fixed order of business. Below is a typical example: 1. Call to order. 2. Roll call of members present. P a g e 8 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

9 3. Reading of minutes of last meeting. 4. Officer s reports. 5. Committee reports. 6. Special orders --- Important business previously designated for consideration at this meeting. 7. Unfinished business. 8. New business. 9. Announcements. 10. Adjournment. Time: 10 minutes max Exercise 1: Create an agenda Create your own basic agenda using Robert s Rules Time: 5 minutes max Exercise 2: Fill out Evaluation Have the participants fill out the evaluation hand out and hand it into you. Handout: Evaluation Handout P a g e 9 Canadian Parents for French - PEI Module-Running an Effective Meeting

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