How to Hold & Facilitate A Meeting

The first rule of any meeting is to have a written agenda with specific time allotted to the items on the agenda. Here is a BLANK SCDSA Agenda Template feel free to make a copy and modify as necessary for your meeting. (even if you do not use this exact template you do need some items [like the attendance form] from this blank agenda in whatever agenda/notes you do take)

1. 1. • Also check out Effective Agendas & Tips for Facilitating a Meeting for more on agendas specifically.

Some meetings may happen on the spur of the moment and there may not be enough time to put together a formal agenda. In this case, putting together a simple agenda with at least the form for attendance and brief talking points is always recommended.

An agenda should have items that address your group's short-term and long-term goals.

Don't forget to schedule your meeting on the SCDSA calendar (the main gmail or your own Cm/WG-specific gmail).

1. • Recurring meetings should be indicated as "recurring."

   • If your Cm/WG does not have a connected Google Calendar (because you're not using a Gmail in general) then please use the Calendar Submission Form for your meetings/events

A day before the meeting, make sure to remind folks in the appropriate Slack channel/Signal group of the meeting and post the agenda, along with details/meeting password (if required).

Make sure all participants have access to the agenda and are able to sign into the attendance form

Assign or identify someone to facilitate the meeting and someone to take notes (can be planned before the meeting starts also).

1. 1. • The person taking notes should not be the same person that is facilitating the meeting.

Community Agreements are explained. Community Agreements are rules for having a facilitated meeting, in order to prevent cross-talk and encourage respectful dialogue. Common/abridged Community Agreements:

Expect best intentions. Aspire to act in camaraderie— welcoming, supportive, respectful, sincere, and open.

One Mic: One person should speak at a time.

When giving feedback, keep it constructive. We value honesty, but only for the purpose of improvement, not for the sake of cruelty. On the opposite side of the spectrum, sugar-coating feedback in order to spare someone’s feelings is not necessarily constructive either. The goal is to be supportive, honest, and thoughtful.

Taking notes- Multiple people can take notes if necessary, but it is important to ensure at least one person is the assigned note-taker. Notes should be taken in the meeting agenda document so everything can be found in one place.

Keeping time- It is also important to keep an eye on the time to make sure you are keeping the discussion within the allotted time range. An additional person can be assigned to keep an eye on the clock and give a 2 min warning to the person leading the meeting.

Stack- Allowing for questions and comments during virtual meetings- the best practice is to follow a progressive stack. People who have questions and comments type "stack" in the meeting chat and each person is called on, in order. Someone should be assigned to keep an eye on the chat for "stack" order (Chat Moderator).

1. • • Progressive stack means if someone who has not spoken raises their hand, they go to the top of the list. If someone who is of an oppressed group raises their hand, they go to the top of the list unless they have already contributed significantly to the discussion.

Action items- at the end of the meeting, if appropriate; make a few action items and assign folks to the items. These action items should be worked upon before the next meeting date, ideally. We want to ensure the necessary work gets done before the next meeting, so action items are critical.

Next meeting date/time- if your meeting is not already scheduled or a reoccurring meeting - plan the next meeting date before the meeting is over. If enough people are not present to decide the next meeting date/time, you can do a poll in the Slack channel or a When2Meet to narrow in on a date/time.

1. • Once a meeting date/time is set please make sure you add the event details to the Suffolk DSA calendar (either thru your Cm/WG google calendar or by letting a member of Steering Committee know the meeting details so they can add it to the calendar)

Make sure the finalized notes is in the appropriate folder in the SCDSA Drive (or in the SCDSA Drive in general so someone can move it to the right folder for you), or that it is in the Meeting Spreadsheet.

Ensure you have changed the document permission settings so that anyone with the link has access to only view (not edit) once you have finalized meeting minutes.

If you were not able to set the next meeting date/time at the end of your meeting, please ensure once one is set that you add the event details to the Suffolk DSA calendar (either thru your Cm/WG Google calendar or by letting a member of Steering Committee know the meeting details so they can add it to the calendar)

Follow up with folks who were assigned action items! Make sure they are reminded of the next meeting date