The droning of a monotone voice from the front of the room. The meeting leader that sits in the middle of the floor and asks, “So what do you guys want to talk about tonight? Two things most of us will avoid like the plague!
Let’s make our campus club and organization meetings fun and interesting or just put us all out of our misery and stop having them! Here are a couple of my time-tested ideas to give things a kick in the pants.
- Start on time. End on time. People’s time is important. Drop the, “I’m going to wait a few minutes until more people arrive.” Start NOW! Don’t punish the people who arrived on time. Start now and finish on time. Once you run over, people will start looking around, clock watching, texting each other – doing everything, except paying attention!
- Have an agenda – and stick to it! Pass it out or put it up on a screen where everyone can see it. Get lots of participation, but use your agenda to stay on track and limit discussion to the topic at hand. Talking about your plans for Saturday night should take place outside of the meeting.
- Sing a song – like the national anthem. Read a humorous story from any number of resources, or share a motivational quote, like those found in “Gonzo’s Little Book of Motivation”. This gets the group interested and focused on something aside from the meeting topics and gets everyone on the same page.
Your turn to share some expertise and experiences now. Come on, don’t hold back. I want to hear your meeting horror stories and successes!
Dave ‘Gonzo’ Kelly
About Dave "Gonzo" Kelly
