Art of Effective Meetings

The information and tools presented in this section are designed to help students in running effective meetings and developing a cohesive, effective team. Each team usually includes at least one member acting as a facilitator; however, experience has shown that teams are most productive when everyone knows some basic information about team functioning.

Meeting Management includes activities before, during and after the meeting.

Before:
      Planning (Agenda)      
          - Decide the meeting date, time, location, meeting leader and facilitator

During:
      Roles (each meeting)
          - Facilitator, Time Keeper, Recorder/Post items on board or flip chart, Team
            Leader
      Ground Rules (rules of conduct and team participation—establish at initial
           meeting, reminders as needed):
      Group Decision-Making Tools (each meeting):
          There are many tools that can help a group make decisions, for example
          BRAINSTORMING—where everyone participates as they think of an idea
          ROUND ROBIN—where everyone, in turn, generates an idea
          3:5—where everyone identifies 3 ideas in a set amount of time, e.g., 5 minutes.
      Closing (each meeting, make sure enough time is left to do this properly):
          - Plan and delegate action items,
          - Set the time, date, location and agenda items for the next meeting, and
          - Review the meeting itself (How did the meeting go? Did everyone participate?                 What changes are needed at the next meeting?).

After (in a timely fashion):
       Post minutes and any materials on Blackboard (team files section)
       Participate in Reflections/Discussions/Chats
       Complete Action Items