Launchpad Activity 8

Chairing a meeting is one of the most useful skills you can develop. In your day to day life you may find yourself serving on your child’s P&C or your local sporting club committee. Being able to efficiently move through an agenda and provide effective segues (links) from one item to the next, will save time and result in effective decision making.

Activity 8 – Chairing a meeting

Duration: N/A
Pre-requisites: Activity 1-7

Outcomes

By the end of this activity, you will be able to:

  1. Effectively chair a Rostrum meeting

Objectives

To do this, you will need to keep the following objectives in mind:

  • Be aware of the procedures and protocols involved in chairing a Rostrum meeting and follow them.
  • Follow the agenda efficiently.
  • Introduce people in a professional and friendly manner.
  • Provide effective segues (links) from one agenda item to the next.

The Why…

Chairing a meeting is one of the most useful skills you can develop. In your day to day life you may find yourself serving on your child’s P&C or your local sporting club committee. Being able to efficiently move through an agenda and provide effective segues (links) from one item to the next, will save time and result in effective decision making.

Where do I start?

This activity can be scary. The role of the chair or chairperson is important and it’s a great skill to have in building your confidence. People who chair meetings really well are respected and admired.

Start by observing very carefully how other members chair the meeting. Take careful note of  what you think works, and what could be done differently.

Speak to the most experienced members of your club about how to prepare for chairing the meeting.

At the two or three meetings prior to you chairing the meeting, follow the agenda carefully as the meeting proceeds and write notes for yourself.

The How

Specific guidelines on how to tackle this activity.

Be aware of the procedures and protocols involved in chairing a Rostrum meeting and follow them

  1. The Agenda will tell you what you need to do so just follow it. There are no nasty surprises so just do what you have seen others do before you.
  2. Make sure you know everyone’s name and how to pronounce them. Names are really important.
  3. Write down how to say the main things like opening and closing the meeting, thanking the coach etc.

Follow the agenda efficiently

  1. Work through the agenda point by point.
  2. Don’t change the order of anything.
  3. Before the meeting, check that everyone who is rostered is present. If someone is missing, talk to the program director or President about whether you should ask someone to fill the gap and if so, who.
  4. As the meeting progresses it’s a good idea to mark on your own agenda when each activity or section is completed. It helps you with the flow of the meeting. 

Keep the speech under 3 minutes

  1. Introducing people is an important skill to master and it is not hard. 
  2. A good formula is timing, topic, name of person. Eg. “For a period of 5 minutes with a warning bell at 4, on the topic If only I Knew, please welcome Peter Smith”.
  3. Put your own flavour or style on the meeting but be careful not to be “over the top” particularly with introductions. The simpler the introduction, the more professional it sounds.
  4. Make sure that you know how to pronounce the names correctly. If you are unsure, ask the person themselves (before the meeting) – they will be happy to tell you how to pronounce their name.

Provide effective segues (links) from one agenda item to the next

  1. People who chair meetings really well develop the skill to link from one agenda item to the next smoothy. 
  2. Listen to the other members when they chair the meeting as to how they link or segue.
  3. Be careful not to make “evaluation like” comments after speeches or activities – leave evaluating to the coach.
  4. You can inject some humour into your segues but make sure it is appropriate.
  5. Be careful not to make your segues lengthy – one or two sentences is plenty for 10 or 15 seconds.

Tips and traps

  1. Chairing the meeting is one of the most useful skills you can develop – grasp the opportunity as a challenge to make your mark!
  2. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Watch others before you and make notes.
  3. Take note of how the experienced members chair the meeting.
  4. The meeting is on your side. They want you to succeed and do well so if you get stuck or go blank, the President will be sitting next to you, he or she will help.
  5. Be careful not to overthink chairing the meeting – your task is to work through a prepared agenda.
  6. Remember you are the servant of the meeting. It’s the club’s meeting, and you are temporary custodian of the chair.

Guidelines for Program Director:

  • Roster this activity after the member has completed Activities 1 – 7.
  • Give the member plenty of notice that they will be chairing the meeting – 2 or 3 weeks.
  • New members often find this activity really challenging so provide lots of encouragement and assistance.
  • Suggest the members sits next to an experienced member for the 2 meetings prior and ask the experienced member to mentor the new person in chairing the meeting.

Resources that may be helpful

  1. Links to speaking hacks (#7, #9 etc)
  2. video links
  3. how to sheets