Meeting Planning & Management

 Evaluating the Effectiveness of Meetings

Our evaluation of your meetings may require some or all of following activities:

• Attending and observing meetings.
• Viewing and analyzing videotapes of meetings.
• Reviewing meeting agendas, accompanying reports, and minutes.
• Interviews with meeting attendees and professional staff.
  

• Value - or return on investment - added by a meeting.
• How well the larger community was served by a meeting.
• Clarity of the group's mandate and meeting purpose.
• Clarity of agenda items, terms and abbreviations used.
• Quality of the documents on which collective decisions were based.
• Depth and quality of the discussions and the decisions made.
• Amount of time spent on substantive issues versus insignificant ones.
• Whether rules of order helped or impeded progress.
• Degree of fragmentation and adversity versus cohesion and collaboration.
• Balance and equality: Was 90% of time taken up by 10% of the people?
• Effectiveness of the meeting Chair.
• Effectiveness of each voting member.
• Effectiveness of support staff and professional advisors.
• Amount of courtesy, civility, decorum, and apparent trust and respect.
• What could make meetings more dynamic, varied, interesting and fun.
  

 Planning & Chairing Contentious Meetings

We can help you plan and chair the following (and other) types of meetings:

• Contentious Board, Council or Committee meetings.
• Divisive partnership meetings with anticipated power struggles.
• Inter-departmental meetings to discuss significant structural changes.
• Large community consultation meetings.
• Public hearings to discuss contentious re-zoning bylaws (local government).
• Annual General Meetings (companies, credit unions, non-profit organizations).
• Contested elections or proxy fights.
• Special General Meetings with resolutions to remove directors from office.
  

• Planning the agenda, framing the issues, and preparing decision-making options.
• Planning discussion activities to shift from "combat-zone" to "construction-zone".
• Preparing participation guidelines, to ensure fairness, equality, civility and decorum.
• Preparing an overall script for the meeting.
• Preparing ad-hoc scripts to deal with disruptive behaviours.
• Briefing all participants on their roles and any do's and don'ts.
• Meeting separately with various factions to establish respect for the process.
• Coaching the designated meeting chair.
• Serving as an impartial meeting chair on your behalf.
  

 Demystifying the Rules of Order

If you need expert advice on rules of order, we can help you by:

• Preparing expert opinions on procedural issues and rules of order.
• Identifying procedural options for an upcoming meeting.
• Developing procedures for nominations and contested elections.
• Developing procedures for disciplinary motions and removals of directors.
• Drafting Ordinary and Special resolutions.
• Preparing a brief summary of meeting rules.
• Preparing a quick reference guide for meeting participants.
• Preparing an overall meeting script.
• Preparing ad-hoc scripts to deal with disruptive behaviours.
• Serving as an impartial presiding officer during a meeting.
• Serving as a procedural advisor (parliamentarian) during a formal meeting.
  

• Shift your focus from mechanical rules to core principles.
• Shift from archaic and confusing terminology to plain language.
• Determine the significance (or lack thereof) of procedural violations.
• Eliminate procedures that are not needed, even if they have been used for years.
• Combat nit-picking and procedural nonsense in meetings.
• Understand key concepts: majority, tie, abstentions, proxies, quorum.
• Handle motions, amendments and other procedures with ease and confidence.