Welcome, purpose, introductions, get food

Purpose: To equip you to plan and carry out improved meetings in a wide variety of situations and settings

Introductions: First round, name and one "identifier"

Basic premises of good meetings: a quick show and tell

Introductions: Second round – human spectrums on meeting topics

Before sitting down, get food and bring to table

Meetings for working groups, task forces, boards (groups that meet repeatedly, with membership changing slowly)

Tips/premises/principles for...

• Preparing, including agenda setting
• Setting the climate, including space and welcome
• Opening the meeting, including ground rules

Application: small groups consider how to improve their own practices in one of more of these areas.

(Continuation) Tips/premises/principles for...

• The heart of a meeting: generating, organizing, deciding
• Closing (reflecting, summarizing, assigning, committing)

Application: small groups consider how to improve their own practices in one of more of these areas.

Meetings with a public face: community groups, neighborhoods (either one-shot groups, or groups that meet regularly but only meet with you once)

What to attend to most closely (tips)

• Purpose: is a meeting the right thing? What kind of meeting? What's "the way they do things around here?"
• Details, logistics
• Agenda: who sets it, what level of detail, who produces it, how far in advance, in what language or visual form
• Roles: who leads, facilitates, records, serves as members
• Ground rules
• Right expectations
• Getting good questions
• What's at the heart of the meeting?
• How do you close (what do you promise?)
• Who follows up (meeting notes, future meetings, assigned tasks)

Application: groups working on upcoming public or community meetings caucus briefly to consider whether some of these tips may help them in planning upcoming events.