Student Life - Leadership Resources
Making Meetings More Exciting
Finding a way to make your meetings more exciting will be critical
to retaining your members and keeping them interested. The energy
you create in the meetings will flow over into your programs and
affect members' enthusiasm. Have fun - don't take yourselves too
seriously!
- Start each meeting with some sort of icebreaker
(a game or a "get to know you" exercise). Members
will be more familiar with each other and energized at the start
of the meetings. See the Points of Leadership on Ice
Breakers for more ideas or contact the Student Life Center.
- Introduce any new member at the start. If a member brought
them, recognize the member for outstanding recruitment.
- Have an agenda printed or written on a dry erase board or
chalkboard. Members can "follow along", and will feel
there is a flow to the meeting.
- Switch meeting locations every now and then, with plenty of
warning, of course!
- Arrive ahead of time and check out the room arrangement.
Vary the set from week to week. Never sit in the same seat twice
and encourage people to sit by others they don't normally sit
by.
- Have a surprise social even in lieu of a meeting. Those who
didn't show up might be sorry they missed it.
- Give out prizes for "five meetings in a row". Encourage
members not to break their streak.
- Take time at the end of each meeting for recognizing members.
Have a traveling award for the hardest worker, most embarrassing
moment of the week, or just say thank you.
- Stick to your time limit. Make sure members know approximately
now long each meeting will last. Sometimes members don't show
up for meetings because the last one lasted two hours and they
don't have that much time.
- Try to keep the meeting as interactive as possible, with the
"reporting" that needs to be done kept as brief as
possible. People join an organization to participate, not just
to listen to others talk. Never let anyone (including yourself)
talk for more than a couple of minutes.
- When members seem apathetic, have an open forum on "why
you joined this group" and encourage people to share. Ask
if people are getting what they want out of the group, and if
not, what can be done to change things.
- To encourage and reward participation, give candy or other
little rewards when someone contributes to the meeting.
- Form committees by playing musical chairs. Once you have
decided your working committees for a project, play some music
and have people walk around. When the music stops, you work
with the people who are in the group. This mixes up teams and
gets everyone involved in different topics.
- Have everyone pick a favorite animal noise. Then, pick a "word
of the day", and every time someone says that word, everyone
makes their noise.
- Remember that the end of the meeting is as important as the
beginning. Do another icebreaker or somehow put closure on the
end of the meeting.
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