Before I start on today’s piece, I enclose a letter I have just written to the local Journal here in Midsomer Norton. I attended a talk last night here in Midsomer Norton. The results were less than I had hoped.
Meeting at the Somer Centre, MSN, 7.30pm Wednesday 4th February 2025
Dear Sir
It does not require much brain power to address this problem. If you rent a hall between say 6:00 PM and 9:00 PM then why not start the talk at 7:00 PM and make the most of the time? I left feeling short changed and very frustrated thinking of all the wonderful stories we could have heard
How to chair a meeting
I must have sat through hundreds of meetings in my 80 years of life and as time progresses I have taken an increasing interest in how a chairman can attend to his matters and what the marks are of a good and bad chair person.
I use the term ‘good’ and ‘bad’ but perhaps I could say effective or ineffective because the style does depend to a great extent on the context. Here are a few points exclusively from my experience. I can say that I have enjoyed only a very small percentage of the meetings I have attended. Here are some # points:
# Please Mr or Ms chairman can you look happy and positive when you start the meeting and don’t look like you’ve rushed in from somewhere else and you are obviously glad to sits down.
# It is not the job of the chair to pander to latecomers unless that person has an important role to play so saying, shall we just give late comers a few more minutes and started – say 10 minutes past the time you should have started it’s just wasting the time of the people who have taken the trouble and the courtesy to turn up on time. So a seven o’clock meeting is a meeting that’s starts at seven pm so arriving latest five minutes before is I think courtesy to the energy of the meeting.
# If you were producing a play, you would not do a dress rehearsal in front of the audience but you would do your dress rehearsal prior to the event and behind the scenes. We want to see a finished product, not a work in progress. I have seen people play around with video presentations, look for papers that must be around somewhere because I had it 10 minutes ago.
# It may sound of daft thing to say but please get to know the members of the committee first. Awkwardness shows in body language. I think all committees should have a pre-meeting meeting to tune in to each other.
# Do not assume knowledge of the audience of the various people on the committee. This may be to assist someone who is attending as part of the audience for the first time.
# Please make eye contact with the audience. It is very important that they feel included. You hopefully will invite some sort of participation from them at some point in the proceedings and very early on you need to establish a rapport.
# You need to deal firmly but politely with those who have a question particularly where they say ‘ I’ll try to be brief’. They inevitably fail and a question can turn into a life history especially among the more inexperienced questioners. One person one point is a good rule.
# A chairman is supposed to be independent and I’ve seen people who choose to ignore those who are not on their side but your job is to represent everyone irrespective of point of view. That is just professional politeness.
# It is often a good idea to repeat a question if a member of the audience does not have the strongest voice in the world. Many people mumble out of nervousness or lack of experience and they should be encouraged because they might have a very good point.
If you have an hour to discuss six points then that is 10 minutes per point not 20 minutes due to someone insisting on making a long speech. We used to call it ‘having a bee in your bonnet’
#On closing the meeting it does no harm to give a summary of what has happened as people have many things on their mind and they may not have been paying full attention to what you and other committee members have been saying.
# It is most important but everyone who turns up should be thanked. A good meeting is a learning experience for everyone and should be joyous. If you want to invite people to a pub or coffee bar afterwards to continue the discussion that that’s all the better.
# The date of the next meeting is also a good idea to show continuity and help people to prepare for anything they might wish to say.
I too have attended many committee meetings. The most skilled was a very successful businessman who employed a couple of hundred in his business in the City. Perhaps this gave him the skill in managing a committee.
Often in committees you find there are two people with opposite views and they can take up a huge amount of time. This chairman had a fabulouse way of dealing with such problems. He would say , ” Mr Smith, and Mr Jones, you both have a lot of knowledge to contribute, can you form a sub-committee and advise this committee at the next meeting. Next item, please.”
Yes, tact and humour plus lots of experience should be adequate for most circumstances. Also, people sometimes talk different languages without realizing it.
Very comprehensive and useful, Brian. It can make so much difference to an event/meeting. Anne W. Stowey-Sutton