Facilitate a Meeting

Well-paced, informative, productive—and enjoyable—meetings are a cornerstone of effective organizations. They require planning and a keen awareness of your audience. These guidelines can help you produce and facilitate successful meetings.

Plan an Agenda

With your coordinating team, consider what issues need to be discussed, decisions made, and/or tasks carried. Structure your agenda from these considerations. Distribute the agenda—preferably in advance of the meeting, but at least at the start. Be sure each attendee has a copy of the agenda; it's also helpful to write it on a flip chart or white board. Review the agenda at the start of the meeting; invite attendees to suggest items you may not have covered. You may not be able to accommodate additional items, but you may be able to schedule them for the next meeting.

Show Some Personality

Working on health disparities and human rights violations are daunting topics. While it is important to convey the severity of issues and seriousness of the chapter's efforts, you want to make sure people are having fun and feel part of a warm community:

• Consider starting with an ice-breaker or informal introduction.
• Make eye contact; acknowledge attendees.
• Include time for socializing (from post-meeting letter-writing parties to simply including a discussion on people's lives outside of the chapter).

Be Focused but Flexible

It is vital to stay on track: members hold the facilitator(s) accountable for making sure there is flow and meaning to the meeting. Keep each segment to the time allotted. Keep the meeting on schedule.

That being said, flexibility is also essential. There will be times when an issue is raised that should be addressed at that moment and it is suitable to revise the agenda. Even when non-urgent opinions and questions are voiced, the facilitator should validate and acknowledge them. A possible way to do this without disrupting the meeting too much is to simply shelve the issue. Make a side-note on the agenda to either address the issue at the end of the meeting if there is time, in another meeting, or one-on-one after the meeting.

Prepare

Great meetings require a prior meet-up or discussion with the chapter's coordinators. A good rule of thumb is to spend the same amount of time preparing for the meeting as the meeting's time length. Have a regular "coordinators meeting" roughly a week to four days before the chapter meeting (to allow time for any tasks that stem from the coordinators' brainstorm.)

Do Not Read

Reading straight from a script is impersonal and conveys a lack of preparation. There are some exceptions, as no one would expect you to remember the entire Declaration of Human Rights. In these cases, make sure you have read it thoroughly before the meeting so you can skim it and use eye contact or use index cards or a PowerPoint to guide you.

Keep Time in Mind

Start all meetings on time and end them on time. All the chapter's members are very busy students, who are happy to give their time to the cause but want to accurately anticipate their time commitments. Take the agenda time-limits seriously and everyone will be appreciative.

Mix It Up

Avoid monotony to keep a high energy level at your meetings throughout the year. Here are a few tips:

• Multi-Media- Use a variety of media to present information, from slide presentations to films to audio interviews.
• Facilitators or Activity leaders- Give other members a chance to lead the meeting or segments of the meeting. Keep in mind as you recap meetings to ask others if they would be interested in taking some type of leading role. Members don't have to hear the same voice and it is an opportunity to develop leadership. Also, don't be afraid to invite someone with expertise on an issue to be a guest speaker.
            Note: Try to create a balance between those who speak a lot and those who do not. Solicit ideas and suggestions from quieter and new members. They may be very committed but simply shy.
• Tone- Change up the meetings between the level of solemnity and lightheartedness. Some issues require a very serious tone throughout but be sure to also include morale-boosting, celebratory meetings as well (especially after events).
• Focus- Alternate the focus of meetings from education to planning/brainstorming to hands-on activity to provide variety.

Consider Location

The location for your meeting is quite important for creating a tone and accomplishing the agenda's goals. The key factors to consider are:

• Accessibility of the room to the students
• Whether the room has adequate facilities for all activities (i.e. projectors, TVs, etc.)
• The set-up is conducive for the mood (For example, it is difficult to have a lively, comfortable discussion in a dimly lit lecture hall where members have their backs to one another.)

Drive it Home & Make it Concrete

Take a couple minutes to cap the meeting with a brief summary of any discussion conclusions or decisions that you made, what tasks or further discussions require follow-up (and when that will happen), and any responsibilities that were assigned. Members will leave the meeting feeling as if they got a lot done and can visualize how the chapter is moving forward.

Take Minutes & Keep Record

Assign someone in your chapter to be the secretary. That person will be responsible for taking meeting minutes, distributing them to the chapter list-serve, and creating an archive. One suggestion is to keep a meeting minutes section in a binder along with all the 07-08 welcome information and action guides, issue-based action packs, and other important materials for everything to conveniently be in one place for you and easy to pass on to the next leaders.

Follow-Up

Be sure to thank everyone who attended and personally show appreciation for those who took on any responsibilities or was instrumental in leading a discussion. Send out the meeting minutes to the chapter list-serve within the next couple days and revise contact information immediately when applicable.

Problems and Solutions

There are a number of problems that you may encounter during a meeting, all of which have viable solutions. These can include:

Difficult/Hostile Attendees

• Instead of ignoring antagonizing comment, directly address them very diplomatically and immediately move on.
• If problems persist, ask the person to speak with you after the meeting.

A Mix of Old and New Members

• Include a social icebreaker.
• Ask old members to speak out to add explanation of discussion points that may seem confusing to the newcomers.
• Include all parties in discussions equally and don't be afraid to directly solicit comments from anyone.
• After the meeting is over, introduce yourself to new members, thank them, and answer any questions that they may have. Also, thank members who contributed to the meeting.

Conflicting Opinions between Members

• Weigh the pros and cons of each idea to come to a compromise.
• Find commonalities between the ideas and highlight those.
• Be decisive and democratic! End circular discussion by voting on ideas.

Apathy

• Connect with your members to help them feel more vested in your chapter.
• Stress that it is their organization.
• Convey manageability in tasks and provide support.
• Add teams to tasks when possible.

Low Attendance

• Publicize your meetings well.
• Stress responsibility to your members.
• Re-evaluate your meeting structure if this is a long-term problem.
• Engage in personal outreach

Digressions

• Regardless of the frustration, show appreciation for members' commentary.
• "Table" the idea if necessary.
• Manage your time- if an idea becomes too involved, explain how it will be revisited and move on.
• Ask members to speak to you about their ideas after the meeting.