Advocacy Toolkit

Student Chapter Organizing

Holding Meetings

Tips on holding effective & productive meetings:
(Adapted from Amnesty International's Student Organizing Guide)

• Designate a facilitator - Choosing a person to facilitate the meeting keeps the meeting moving and develops leadership skills. Over time, rotate facilitators to give anyone interested a chance to learn this important skill.
  
• Establish an Agenda - Write it on the board, invite people to make additions and changes at the beginning of the meeting. Stick to the agenda as much as possible, but recognize that flexibility is a facilitation skill.
  
• Start and end times - Your time is precious. Respect everyone's time by sticking to the time limit, and set it out on the agenda.
  
• Stick to it - As the facilitator, it is your responsibility to make sure that the meeting stays on track. Therefore, if someone begins to discuss something that isn't on the agenda, "table" the issue. If the issue being discussed is larger and programmatic in nature, write it down on a list of future broader issues to consider. If the issue is smaller and more detail-oriented in nature, write it on a post-it-note. Place both the list and the post-its on the wall next to the agenda and tell those attending the meeting that you will talk about those issues, after you have come to the end of the initial agenda.
  
• Encourage participation - Seek balance between those who speak a lot and those who do not. Solicit ideas and suggestions from quieter and new members.
  
• Seek commitments - Encourage members to sign up for specific tasks, e.g. tabling, postering, action committees, etc. Keep track of who has committed to do what and follow up with those individuals.
  
• Avoid detailed decision-making - This should be reserved for other planning or committee meetings. Write decisions that need to be made on post-it notes and discuss them after the meeting.
  
• Post-it note paradise - After you have made it through the initial agenda, go through the post-it-notes and decide whether each issue is an organizational matter to be discussed by the entire group at the next meeting, or whether it is a matter to be discussed by a smaller focus group, and then perhaps later be brought back to the larger community.
  
• Summarize the meeting results and follow up - Make sure students leave the group knowing which decisions were made, which need further discussion and when they will be discussed, and which responsibilities were assigned. This helps create a vision of what's happening next and where the chapter is headed. Thank those who helped plan the meeting and thank all of the participants for making it a successful meeting.