How will your meeting be run?
Every chair needs some guidelines about how the group wants their meetings to be run. It helps to set out some simple rules - these must be ones everyone accepts and is prepared to work with, or they'll be useless.
Once you've got some rules agreed, it is much easier to chair the meeting, and people are less likely to take it personally when you ask them not to interrupt or stop them from wandering off the topic. You need to work out the rules that suit your group, but here are some that are commonly used:
Examples of meeting rules
- ask people to speak 'through the chair'. This means putting your hand up if you want to speak and waiting for the chair to say it's your turn
- don't interrupt other people
- stick to the item on the agenda
- don't talk amongst yourselves
- respect other people's views - don't groan or pull faces when someone else is speaking. Wait until they've finished and then put your point of view calmly and politely
- keep contributions short and to the point
- start and finish the meeting on time.
Remember...
- you will need to remind people of the meeting rules at each meeting. There may be new people there, and even regular attendees will forget
- a group can take a while to get used to the meeting rules you've agreed. If it doesn't work perfectly first time, keep on trying.