Overview

This guide is designed to serve as a reference for clubs that would like assistance in organizing and running effective meetings. The framework, items, and methods in this guide for clubs are merely suggestions. Different methods of holding meetings work for different clubs. Club chairs should experiment and decide what is best for their individual chapter and their leadership style.

Meeting Setup

Time & Day: The time that you choose is very important. Usually the best time to have a meeting is either in the late afternoon or early evening. The meeting time and day should also be scheduled to ensure that club officers will be able to attend.

• Afternoon: This usually works best for clubs on “commuter” campuses, for a significant portion of the student body will be leaving campus by 5 p.m. and they are not likely to drive back to campus for a meeting in the evening. In general, an afternoon meeting should not be earlier than noon and start no later than 5pm. This will maximize the number of students that will be out of class and minimize the number that will have left campus for the day.
  
  

• Evening: In general, this is the ideal time, especially for schools with a heavier dorm population or population of students who live very close to campus. If students live within a few miles of campus they usually will not be averse to returning to campus after dinner.
  
  

• Day of the Week: It is usually best to have a meeting towards the end of the week. Wednesdays and Thursdays work well, but Tuesday is not necessarily a bad idea either. Mondays probably are not the best day to have meetings for publicity reasons.

Location & Room: The location is extremely critical. You want to choose a location with which most students are very familiar, or will be easy to find.

• Good Locations: A room in the student union or one of the better known department buildings (i.e. Social Science Hall Room: XYZ).

• Bad Locations: New small department buildings or obscure rooms in remote buildings (i.e. a faculty lounge in a new building down the street at the end of campus in closet sized room that is partially underground through three doors after you climb through the window that is down three stairs near the bathroom down the hall on the left).
  
  

• Room: The room should be comfortable with enough chairs for everybody. But make sure that the room is not too large. This can lead to awkwardness on both your members and also a speaker; plus, it makes look like you have less in attendance than you actually do.
  
  

• Arrangement: The way you arrange the room completely depends on your approach of how formal a meeting should be. In general, smaller clubs might consider not using the most formal approach.
  
  

• Informal Approach: Arrange chairs in a circular fashion, and officers should sit throughout the circle.
  
  
  

• Formal Approach: Arrange the chairs or tables in a typical lecture style format. A podium or desk can be placed at the front of the room. Officers can sit at one table in the front of the room with the chairman in the middle. Otherwise, the chairman or a designated officer can lead the meeting while the other officers place themselves throughout the room to maintain the camaraderie between officers and members.
  
  
  

• Mixed Approach. Arrange the chairs in a half circle with the chairman or all officers at the open end.