News From Student Sections

Roadmap to Planning Better Chapter Events:
Before the Meeting 

American statesman Benjamin Franklin once said, "You may delay, but time will not." In working with the OSA Chapter officers, I've found that many share a similar sentiment: Despite their best intentions, they fall behind in meeting planning, due to real-world time constraints.

So how does one overcome the challenge? A large part of what makes a meeting successful occurs in the preparation phase. Although it may vary by committee, there are seven key responsibilities expected of chairs or team leaders before a meeting takes place. Each is explained in detail below.

Clarify purpose and aims

A clearly stated purpose or aim describes the key decisions that must be made or actions that must occur at the meeting. The purpose of a meeting should be stated at the top of the meeting agenda.

Some example purpose statements might look something like:

• Share best practices in recruitment and identify opportunities to recruit collaboratively
• Identify priority goals for next year
• Decide how to get feedback from faculty, staff and students

Everything else on the agenda including topics, times, and presenters are the activities that, taken together, will accomplish the aims. A monthly staff meeting may not require meeting aims beyond the agenda items.

Create an Agenda

An agenda is a framework that guides and supports the meeting. Agendas are like roadmaps, blueprints, flight plans, and recipes. An agenda helps focus the group's work toward achieving desired outcomes. Good agenda items provide focus and structure for a meeting.

Some example agenda items might look something like:

• Report on membership
• Identify members for ad hoc committee
• Generate list of possible solutions for the specific problem with pros and cons of each

Schedule the Meeting

Scheduling a meeting involves much more than just making a list of attendees. It requires identifying key people who must attend and either finding times that work for them or notifying them of the meeting's time and location. Once an optimal date and time are agreed upon, a meeting location can be selected. (Choice meeting locations sometimes dictate meeting dates.)

Other scheduling activities might include some of the following:

• Create a scheduling grid
• Create an electronic mailing list at the start
• Keep a sample E-mail handy to use as a double-check
• Draft the final meeting notification early on, with date, time and location added later.

Make room arrangements

Ensure that room arrangements (including refreshments) are made. Room arrangements can make a big difference in how well a meeting goes or doesn't go. Most important is that participants can see and hear each other.

Although a "U" shape arrangement or open square is ideal for smaller groups of 20 or less, it is not usually a good choice for larger groups. The yawning hole in the middle makes communication difficult. A herring bone arrangement of tables is usually better for these larger groups.