SOLI offers one-on-one advising for student organizations looking to improve their organizational meetings. Please contact the Office for Student Organizations, Leadership & Involvement for more information.
Five P’s of Effective Meetings
Cameron, Kim and Whetten, David. Developing Management Skills. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2004. 584-589.
- Purpose
- Why is the meeting being held?
- Make Decisions
- Brainstorming
- Don’t hold a meeting only to make announcements!
- A meeting shouldn’t be held if:
- Key people are missing
- Information can be transmitted through e-mail or phone
- People are not prepared
- Why is the meeting being held?
- Participants
- Decide who will be invited to the meeting
- What roles they will play?
- Decide who will be invited to the meeting
- Planning
- Make an agenda
- Should be available to participants one-half of the time interval between meetings
- Ex: if you have meetings every two weeks, an agenda should be sent out one week before the upcoming meeting
- Should be available to participants one-half of the time interval between meetings
- Make an agenda
- Participation
- How will individuals be involved in the meeting?
- Provide Instructions
- Introduce meeting participants to each other
- Establish Ground Rules
- Communicate the amount of participation expected
- Communicate what variations from the agenda will be tolerated
- Establish Decision Rules
- Communicate how decisions will be decided upon (for example: Majority vote vs. Consensus)
- Provide Instructions
- How will individuals be involved in the meeting?
- Perspective
- Evaluate the meeting
- Take an anonymous survey asking specific questions
- Ex: “what did you like best” or “what would you like to see included in the next meeting”
- Take an anonymous survey asking specific questions
- Evaluate the meeting
What if the Five P’s aren’t working? Running effective meetings takes practice, so don’t become discouraged if meetings aren’t as successful as hoped.