On the "Organizational (Name) Changes Announced" thread flyandscuba said the following about how he is making an effective meeting:

quote:

flyandscuba One of the changes I made when I accepted the FC position -- was to eliminate the lengthy and unnecessary staff officer reports from the regular monthly membership meetings. I know of no better way to chase off a guest/prospective member -- than to eat up 30-45 minutes of a meeting with such typically rambling reports.

As a new FC good meetings has been a real priority. We've taken a few steps over the years and I've made some changes this year that seem to help. What has and had not worked for others. If you are not an FC right now, what really bugs you about meetings.

Here is what we are doing:
1) Training at every meeting! This month we talked about the Materials process and then listened to the first part of the Commandant's N-Train remarks.
2) Keep it under 90 minutes, training included.
3) Since we keep it short we don't break but go to fellowship after the meeting. It may seem odd but I find the meeting stays on track and people actually spend more time on fellowship this way.
4) Newsletter every month so not everything needs to be covered in the meeting.
5) Comprehensive agenda: I put the schedule for the upcoming months and any other info that came too late for the newsletter onto the agenda. I list what the event is, for whom it is relevant, the date/time/location, and the uniform if any. This saves at least 5 minutes a meeting of being asked "What time did you say XXX was happening...." I also make sure to send out the agenda a few days ahead of time to the entire Flotilla and ask for comments and additions which means I can afford to be a little forgetful.
6) Request/require written motions and amendments. This makes people get organized and reduces the burden on the secretary (and the time spent asking the person making the motion to repeat themselves).
7) Sit in a circle. It is more friendly.
8) Be an assertive meeting chair, redirect when required and ask the long winded ones to keep it short. Set expectations of how much time people have to speak before they begin. "I'd like to open the floor to the senior members to make any comments, not exceeding two minutes..." It is your meeting and the vast majority of your members will thank you for keeping it under control.
9) Plan. If you have 30 people in the room and you spend 2 minutes fumbling through your briefcase for an award you have just wasted an hour... and your membership will take that hour out of your hide one way or another.

I kind of liked the staff reports at flotilla meetings. Our Division dropped the verbal reports last year and wanted the Flotillas to adopt that rule also. Since I've passed the FC baton, our new FC and VFC have also adopted this policy.

Giving verbal reports does eat up some time, but I think the benefit is that it keeps members informed. Even though we pass out written staff reports to all members, a lot of them don't ever read them. this way, they at least hear what's going on at the Flotilla level.

C'mon, I hated sitting through those 4 hour meetings at the Station before they made the change to emailing the reports in for early distribution...

We still do FSO reports at our flotilla, but they normally don't take very long.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: baloo0136,

My report is on file, I have nothing further to add.

The proper verbiage is: "my report stands as submitted." Submitting the reports before the flotilla meeting saves a lot of time and cuts down on the boredom. My wife and I are only interested in Surface Ops. We are in a flotilla whose big thing is VEs. Ergo, we are bored to tears when they have a long drawn-out discussion on VEs.

Baloo, I agree about the staff reports and Flotilla reports at Division mtgs.
I was saying that at the Flotilla level I liked the verbal reports. It doesn't take too long and everyone catches up on what's going on and what's coming up.

My flotilla (unfortunately) does verbal reports at the beginning of the meeting (after an hour-long dinner). With those and various announcements from the FC and VFC, it usually eats up the first 45 minutes of the meeting.

On the one hand, it does serve some purpose in allowing people to tell what they've been doing and thereby gain some informal recognition for a job well done -- as well as probably spur other staff officers to make sure they've done something worth reporting.

But, on the other it is a major drag, especially for new members. This format almost kept me from joining. I also think it is a disincentive for sending anything for the newsletter since the officer has already talked about it at the meeting.

By the time we're through with all that, people are getting antsy and are starting to think about going home and are much less receptive to any training that we might try to do then.

Eventually it will probably be my turn to go into leadership and when I do, this will be the absolute first thing I change. Staff reports will be eliminated. Announcements of upcoming events will be sent to the VFC or FC and they will make them. Hopefully, 10 minutes or less of this sort of thing and then straight into training or whatever else we're doing.

When you do become FC, be sure to bring back to the flotilla meeting ALL the information from the division meeting. With twenty years of membership in the auxiliary, it has been my experience that the FC only brings back info that interests HIM. Do not fall into that habit. We have a flotilla meeting tonight and I know we will hear nothing on OPs, only VEs as we are in a VE oriented flotilla. Boring!

I'm with you on that...Information transmittal can be horrible.

Well, I guess we have all agreed to disagree.
There is no way we can standardise a unit meeting to everyones liking. What works for one will never work for all.

Try out all the suggestions, vary your meetings & find out what works best for you. Round tables, no tables, read or don't read minutes etc., etc. Keep trying.