A Thought on Meetings

Written by Anthony Demangone

I've written a ton about meetings in this space. 

But for all of the complaints, most credit unions run very good meetings.

Those would be board meetings.

What makes those work?

• An agenda.
• Materials are distributed beforehand.
• There are rules - Robert's Rules of Order.
• Someone is in charge - the Chair.
• People generally come to the meeting prepared to discuss the topics. 

So, here are two questions.

1. Do your non-board meetings measure up to your board meetings? 
2. If not, can you take what works at your board meetings, and apply it across all your business get-togethers?  

Have a great weekend, everyone.  I'm off to the beautiful town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a wedding. If you have half as much fun as I plan on having this weekend, you're in for a good one. 

Comments

[Dan Clark, CCUE]

Anthony,

It is true, meetings need rules. Over the years I have found Robert's rules stifling for board meetings. In my copy of Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised, I learned that his structure is aimed at large assemblies, and that Roberts suggest simplified rules for "small boards." That's why I wrote a simplified version any credit union board can adopt to improve its board meetings: http://bit.ly/RCx3nV

[Ken Schroeder, MBCP, MBCI, VP-Business Continuity]

John Cleese, of Monty Python fame, has done several videos on meetings. He had several articles as well. His material was filled with the same witty humor we've come to expect from him, while at the same time injecting salient, meaningful truths.

One of the most valuable ideas I remember came from one of his articles titled something like "Making Your Meeting vs Meeting Your Maker".

Planning a meeting, publishing an agenda, and managing the valuable time of your participants makes all the difference. You control the meeting--It doesn't control you.

It takes practice to get it right, and your participants will appreciate it.

[Anthony Demangone]

Dan and Ken - many thanks. Great points. And anything involving John Cleese must be worthwhile. I'll look into his videos a bit more.