Meetings

“An organization’s results are determined through webs of human commitments born in webs of human conversations.” --Fernando Flores, philosopher, former Chilean minister of finance

“Well-planned meetings are a key to an organization’s effectiveness. It is through meetings that the organization establishes its identity, formulates policies, makes decisions, and discusses ideas.” –Meetings That Matter, Revised (NASSP)

Holding chapter meetings is not a specific requirement for NEHS, but meetings can serve an important purpose by providing the means for planning, teaching leadership skills, communicating to the membership, and generally making the adviser’s job a little easier. It is important that all meetings be well-planned with a well-thought-out agenda and be operated according to some recognized method of procedure (e.g., Robert’s Rules of Order, etc.). It is the responsibility of the chapter officers, with support of the chapter adviser, to plan and conduct all meetings in such a manner that members believe their time is well‑spent.

To assure ongoing and consistent attendance at your chapter meetings, make them meaningful. Use the time wisely, providing motivational aspects on the agenda, taking time to provide leadership instruction or valuable information for members, and generally addressing the needs and concerns of members at each meeting. Just as every day at school is well planned by teachers to meet learning goals, so should every meeting be well-planned to meet the goals of the chapter.

Advisers can access the following tools to assist in their member-training efforts that focus on meeting management skills (adviser login required):