Note that these are (1) really long and (2) incomplete - I'm working on these, particularly making them shorter. This is just a first braindump because Marco asked how I ran meetings... if people are interested / can think of a good place to post them outside a textfile on my hard drive, I'll gladly move my work to there.
-Mel On Tue, Nov 11, 2008 at 11:37 AM, Marco Pesenti Gritti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Since each team is running meetings now, I thought I'd forward these > notes from Mel. I think they contain a bunch of concrete advises on > how make them better! > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Mel Chua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: Fri, Nov 7, 2008 at 6:42 AM > Subject: Running good meetings > To: Marco Pesenti Gritti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > (Note that I don't always do all of these because I forget stuff > sometimes, but as I think through my "if I was actually > super-disciplined about running meetings correctly, here's what I'd > do" list, here's what I came up with.) > > These are notes specifically applicable to running IRC meetings with > meetbot using using Mediawiki (with Semantic Mediawiki) as a > note-taking system, but the general principles apply to running any > sort of meeting. > > Before the meeting: > > 0. Make it really easy to take/manage meeting notes. See > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community_testing_meetings for an example - > Skierpage was awesome and made the "How to add a meeting" button + > semantic mediawiki stuff, which pulls from this template: > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Template:New_community_testing_meeting (But > for the really cool stuff, check out the source on for > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community_testing_meetings#Meeting_minutes > for SMW-fu). > > Basically, I asked Skierpage to help me make a system that I would > *not* be too lazy to use. ;) See > http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/wiki-gang/2008-October/000059.html > for this discussion. > > 1. Have a draft agenda on a wiki page, using the system from #0. > Pre-filling the page with a template stub (the "How to add a meeting" > button + http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Template:New_community_testing_meeting > template) helps a lot to decrease gruntwork. > > http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Community_testing_meetings/2008-11-06&oldid=178820 > is an example of pre-meeting notes - note that there's one section per > agenda item, with short notes arrayed below. > > When there's a lot of background information, or when somebody wants > to voice their opinion before the meeting, or can't make the meeting > and wants to put their thoughts forth for consideration, link to it. > For example: > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Community_testing_meetings/2008-11-06/Prioritizing_activities_to_test > > 2. Send out reminder emails about the meeting - mention it (with a > link to the draft agenda) when you send out the minutes from the > previous meeting, and send a reminder the day before or the day of the > meeting itself (also with the draft agenda link). > > 3. Invite people personally to the meeting over email, in IRC, when > you see them... anything. Try to bring up specific things that they > might be interested in, or that you would like them to come talk > about. "Hey Mel, we're going to talk about cheese - I remember you > were telling me about this wonderful cheddar that you had last week > and thought you might enjoy coming and speaking about that..." > > 4. Remind people to come to the meeting right before it starts. You'll > see me poking my head into offices, walking by people's desks, or at > the very least sitting at mine and suddenly hollering "Hey guys! > Community test meeting in 5 minutes in the #olpc-meeting channel!" > > 5. As people file into the meeting room, greet and welcome them and > thank them for coming in a bit early / on time. This is important! It > confirms to them that there's a meeting on, gives you a good sense of > who's present (for a virtual meeting), and makes it clear that being > on time is Awesome. > > 6. A minute or so before the meeting starts, look around and say > something like "it's almost time to start, is everybody ready?" to > remind people that the actual get-down-to-business time is coming up. > > During the meeting: > > 7. Begin the meeting. (Meetbot command: #startmeeting) This should be > *exactly* on time, if at all humanly possible, and it should be > incredibly obvious to everyone that the meeting has started. Pound a > gavel, wave your arms, say "Time to focus!" or "The meeting has > started!" or... well, I'm sure you can think of wittier things to say. > > 8. Thank everyone for coming, again. > > 9. If you haven't taken attendance some other way, ask for a roll call > or otherwise figure out who's present, who's lurking, who's doing > something else but can be poked to chime in on something (remember, > when you call on them, that it usually takes them a couple minutes to > realize you're trying to get their attention, so if you can tell them > "your topic is coming up soon" a few minutes in advance, you usually > get better results.) > > Ideally, though, the vast majority of your attendees will be present > and focused on the meeting and only on the meeting. (If this isn't the > case, try to figure out how you can work things out for the next > meeting so that they are. Meetings with everyone half-present tend to > drag on and be painful because nobody's really thinking.) > > 10. Post the link to the draft agenda, and then post the abbreviated > version of the agenda - I copy-paste the Table of Contents from the > wiki agenda page. Again, see > > http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Community_testing_meetings/2008-11-06&oldid=178820 > as an example. > > Note that last-minute rearranging of the agenda wiki page before > sending this link is totally okay. ;) I mean, it's not ideal. But it's > okay. (Although this could also be my excuse for doing this All The > Time.) > > 11. Ask for comments on the agenda or any last-minute decisions. This > is important because once you lock in the agenda, you want to stick to > it. > > 12. Phrase your questions with default answers whenever you can - for > instance, instead of "Any additions to the agenda?" say "Any additions > to the agenda? If not, we'll start with the first item, which is: What > Type Of Cheese Should We Get For Tomorrow's Fondue?" > > 13. If your questions don't get answered within 20-40 seconds, say > something like "Anybody?" or "I'll take that response as a yes," or > "All right, moving on..." or some other "I am warning you that we are > making a transition to a different topic!" phrase, wait a few more > seconds, and then switch topics. (To your first agenda item. Remember, > you're going through *only* your agenda items. This is absolutely > firm. Ideally you'll go through them in order, though this is not so > firm.) > > 14. Discuss the agenda item at hand, and only the agenda item at hand. > If people drift off topic, but what they say is close enough that it > can be re-steered into the conversation, say something like "That's a > great point, how can we apply it to Thursday's fondue cheese selection > (or whatever the topic is)?" Find some way to gently re-fold it into > the conversation topic. > > If the point they bring up can be folded into a later agenda item, > tell them to bring it up when that agenda item comes up. "We're going > to talk about chocolate in a few minutes, would you mind bringing this > up again then?" > > If their point can't be folded into any agenda item but is on-topic > for that kind of meeting, ask if they would like to lead a discussion > on that during the next meeting, and then tell them to put it as an > agenda item, led by them, on the next meeting's draft agenda. > "Actually, that would be a great thing to talk about at our next > meeting. Do you think you could lead a discussion on that next week? > You can? Thanks! Can you put it on next week's meeting agenda > wikipage, and put your name there so I remember that you'll be leading > that discussion? The link is..." > > If their point is totally off topic for the meeting or the group, tell > them so; if you can, point them towards the proper venue for it. > "Actually, salad selection is outside the domain of the fondue group, > but the Appetizers Committee is meeting on Friday, and Marco runs that > meeting; you should ask him if you can talk about it then." > > 15. #14 relies mainly on one thing - that at any given time, it should > be clear what the agenda item/topic is. Give reminders occasionally if > needed. Reference back to the notes on the draft wiki page. That's why > you put them there beforehand - in addition to being useful > pre-reading, they also give you things to use to steer the > conversation back on topic. "Actually, let's look at what Marco said > earlier about Muenster cheese - if you read this email that he wrote, > you'll see that..." > > 16. Oh, yes. If new people come in, welcome them, thank them for > coming, send them the agenda, and tell them what agenda item you're > discussing. "Hi, Mel! Glad you could make it. The agenda is at... and > we're talking about item 5, 'should we have bread or crackers?' right > now." > > 17. It helps to have commonly-accessed URLs (where you can get a > meeting transcript, the draft agenda, the previous meeting's minutes, > next week's meeting agenda...) in a text document or somewhere else > you can rapidly copy-paste them from. > > (Ideally, something like meetbot would store those URLs beforehand and > then you could call them out as needed, but that feature isn't there > yet. Something like "Hi, Mel! Glad you could make it. Here are the > logs so far - meetbot: #logs" and then meetbot would spit out the > appropriate URL, which you told it beforehand.) > > 18. If things are too quiet, call on people individually for thoughts > and comments. "Greg, do you know if we have any vegans coming to the > party who can't eat cheese? Chris, do you know if the bread we're > planning on using is vegetarian? Brian, you used to cook for somebody > with food allergies - what should we avoid?" > > 19. If things are too noisy, step back and rephrase them as topics in > a linear order, and then go through that order. "Okay, I think we have > several conversations going on here - Kim, why don't you talk about > why we should use French bread first, and then Frances can make her > case for crackers, and then I want to make sure we hear Joe's > suggestions on how to slice the vegetables for dipping." > > ...wow, this is longer than I thought it would be. More to come later. > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >
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