Dear Aunt Agony

Our meetings drag on for hours - people go round and round the houses and keep coming back to the same points, interspersed with anecdotes, stories about their holidays and so on, and we never seem to make any decisions.

Frustrated of Findern

Dear Frustrated

Meetings are for making decisions - otherwise what's the point of having them? If people want to get together for a social chit-chat then they can do this at any time. Meetings of a voluntary group are to decide on things that need to be decided and then move on. People need to distinguish between business and pleasure. That's not to say that your meetings shouldn't be pleasurable. But accept there are certain times when decisions need to be made and these should be separated from social activities.

Of course, if the group's purpose is self-help, then part of the function of a meeting is to allow people to mingle, discuss problems and share solutions. But separate this from the business part of the agenda.

Actually, having an agenda is the best way to control meetings and stop them going on and on without ever reaching a decision. Write on the agenda 'coffee and socialising' either before, or better still, after, the business part of the meeting. This will also help get the business over with quicker!

The Chair can use the agenda to move the meeting forward. As each agenda item is discussed, summarise it, ask for a decision and then move on to the next one. Once a decision has been made on something, don't come back to it. And don't overload the agenda with things that don't need to be discussed there and then. If there are too many items to get through in a reasonable time, the Chair and Secretary can get together and decide on items to be deferred to the next meeting.

And don't allow people to bring up major items for discussion under 'any other business'. This section really is for minor items of information, not items requiring a decision.

Stand up to people who demand to discuss something NOW. If it hasn't been submitted for the agenda in the proper way and it's not felt to be an emergency - in which case something else should be dropped from the agenda to make way for it - it shouldn't be discussed. Full stop. People are giving up their time voluntarily to attend the meeting as it is. Don't trespass on that commitment by letting meetings go on too long, or you'll just find the good people drift away, leaving only the windbags to go droning on… and on… and on…..

(from Network News, Nov/Dec 2003)

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