10 Ways To Put On A Good Club Meeting
What do you think of when club meetings come to mind? Boredom? Waste of time? No energy? Time to spruce up those meetings and get everyone involved!
If your meetings aren’t engaging then maybe you’ve missed a few steps in the process. Here’s what we’ve found makes meetings far more enjoyable so you get the most out of them and boost attendance from your club members:
1. Frequency
Having meetings too often can be taxing on all involved, however having them too far spread apart means that tasks, objectives and team spirit can wither. Striking a balance is difficult and different for each club but meetings can be no more than once every week and no less than once every month. Fortnightly meetings are often good and allow time for tasks to be accomplished while not letting them slip out of people’s minds.
2. Who attends
Customise your meetings for who is involved and consider splitting meetings up by groups. Leave big questions and decisions to a core committee but get an entire community involved in the everyday decisions of your club. You’ll find rowers and their parents or friends or event community managers have many more opinions and the will to input. Your core committee is likely to be very busy so offloading smaller decisions onto community meetings can be incredibly effective.
3. Problems you faced and overcame since last meeting
Lighten up the beginning of meetings by noting your most recent triumphs. This makes the meeting a cause for celebration rather than a hard talk for development and loosens people up for what they could be doing better.
4. Problems you are still facing
After the celebrations subside turn the conversation towards the big issues you’re still facing. When meeting attendees are in a light mood they can deal with the harsher problems more enthusiastically.
5. What’s working and what’s not?
Not everything is strictly a problem or in perfect condition. See if you can identify issues with current processes that place unnecessary stress on your club members. Work to enhance those processes to better suit. Have these kinds of discussions lightens the mood once again as members get a chance to be heard and helped. People like to know they are being listened to and a happier group of club members means a smoother running club.
6. How to communicate with distanced members
For some club members it might just be too inconvenient to join live meetings. Perhaps try setting up a Skype group where members can join in on meetings and give those who can’t be there a chance to be heard.
7. Following up
At the end of the meeting it is always good to sum all activities up and alert everyone to what they are in charge of. Newsletters work well for this as well as individual email reminders. Keeping meeting minutes also helps a club develop their meetings to be more structured and get more done.
In the end the sole purpose of a meeting is to improve and move forward. If you haven’t moved forward or improved between two meetings or don’t have a plan after each meeting, something needs to be changed. For some groups having informal and sporadic meetings is more effective because they flow easier with busy lifestyles however these types of meetings are hard to manage. Find a system that works best for your club members and for it’s leaders because every club is unique.