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Sample Meeting

You have to set a time and place and frequency for you meetings. Call the first one, and put this on the first agenda. No time is good for everybody. Do the best you can, and remember it can always be changed. Get a place that's quiet, private, and preferably doesn't belong to one of the members. That's a possible power problem, so avoid it if you can.

Agenda the first part of an agenda is the order of business. Take the one from the IWW Constitution for starters, and modify it if need be. It's a good one, tried and true. The chair prepares a proposed agenda, leaving space for additions. The agenda has to be approved by vote of the group, or else you're already being led by the nose. Sort of like the situation you meet in the voting booth.

  • The chair should be chosen at the previous meeting, so as to be able to prepare in advance. The chair gets there early, sets up chairs for the membership, makes coffee or whatever, prepares a proposed agenda big enough to be easily read by all, greets people as they arrive.

  • When it's time to start the chair calls the meeting to order. I recommend doing this at the exact moment the meeting was scheduled for and let the latecomers be late. One of the most important things in a good meeting is to avoid wasting people's precious time. Let the late ones be late and miss out (they can read the minutes), and reward the prompt ones by not wasting their time. This also minimizes the potential for cults of personality to arise.

  • Choose a recording secretary. This person takes the minutes. The minutes should be clear, legible and brief. They must include motions made and whether they carried or not, how they are to be implemented, by when and by whom. That's the meat of it. Also include time and place of meeting, who chaired and recorded, who was present. You can leave out the discussion on questions usually. Get the bones and keep it clear and brief.

  • Conduct a Card Check. Have each IWW member present pass their IWW Membership Card's to the fellow worker immediately to their left or right to verify that they're current in their dues.  Non members may attend, if a majority of the members in good standing vote to allow them to do so, but they are allowed voice and not vote. According to the General Bylaws of the IWW Constitution, Article VI, Delinquency, Section 1:
Monthly dues are payable the first of each month. Members whose dues are 60 days in arrears (60 days from the first of the month when dues were payable), shall be in bad standing and shall not be entitled to any rights or benefits in the IWW until such dues have been paid. After 3 months in bad standing members shall be considered in inactive standing and cannot take part in business meetings.
  • Reading the minutes from the previous meeting. They should be read in full and approved, or amended and then approved by vote of the group. This way everybody has it clear what has been decided, and who said they would do what by when. That's your jumping-off point for the current meeting. It keeps you honest. It makes a record of the life of the collectivity. It's necessary for making the next agenda. Don't shortchange the minutes.

  • Approve the agenda or amend and approve. Make sure people know they have a say in this. It's more important than the average newcomer realizes.

  • Brief announcements and communications. The key word here is brief. These items require no discussion. If they generate agenda items for new business, get them on the agenda right away and move on. You can easily get mired down here, so watch it. They should be relevant to the group, and if they are lengthy either have them in written form for interested parties to read later or have people who want details talk to the person later. Keep it rolling.  In many cases, it's preferable to combine these with "Good & Welfare" and hold these over until the end of the meeting.

  • Reports: also require no discussion, except for possible clarification. If they generate business to be discussed or acted upon, they go to new business or to the appropriate committee. Reports should be kept brief, and can be presented in written form if they're long. "I've got a report here from the doodad committee, regarding current innovations and the rising cost of gizmos. It's long, so I'll let you read it after the meeting if you're interested." reports include those of officers, standing or special committees, delegates, attendees of events or activities. Also report on the implementation of previously made decisions of the group. "we decided last meeting to poison the stream and murder the neighbors' dog. Bill and Nancy were in charge implementation on that one. Can we hear a report?" that sort of thing.

  • Now we're getting into the main meat of the meeting, the business. We should have whizzed through everything up to here pretty quick (but not so quick as to neglect), because now is when the going, of necessity, gets a little slower.

  • Business is anything that requires a decision and/or implementation by the group.

  • Unfinished business. Old business was once new business, and we're not done with it quite yet. Maybe it got tabled till we got more information. Maybe we were too dingy to deal with it last meeting, but didn't want to just forget it. Maybe it was too hairy to handle all at once. Whatever business wasn't satisfactorily completed last meeting is now old business, unless all we need is a report on implementation.

  • New business item is best presented as a motion though sometimes you may need a few whereases to make it clear why you are presenting the motion. The maker of the motion should have taken the time to think it out pretty well, maybe kicked it around with friends, and should have a pretty clear idea of what needs to happen, thus saving us all a lot of time. "i move that we take off our pants and sing Yankee doodle on 14th street, this Wednesday at noon, and that a committee be set up to help implement this decision." there, now! That's a nice clear way to bring up a new business item. The chair says: 'it has been moved that we blah, blah.." restating the motion, both for the sake of the membership and to help the recording secretary get it right in the minutes. The chair says: "is there a second?" if nobody seconds it then that's that. It's not much of an idea and we can get on with the business. If one more person wants it to pass, they second it, and it's not totally out of left field, and apparently worthy of our time. "is there any discussion?"

    • If it's a shoo-in there doesn't need to be much discussion. We don't really need to hear three people say why they think it's a good idea if nobody disagrees. The chair should direct the discussion with this in mind. Ask if anybody wants to speak against the motion. Ask if anybody is unclear on it or has hesitations or reservations about it. Draw them out, to be sure it's adequately discussed, but ride herd on it to avoid waste of time. Keep the discussion to the topic. The chair has to tactfully interrupt if somebody is wandering off the track. Membership should also do this as needed. It's a bit tricky, but very learnable.

    • When it seems the question is clarified, adequately discussed, the chair or any member can call the question, call for a vote. "all opposed. All in favor." if you think it's a shoo-in, which is really common in a well functioning group, you can save a lot of time by asking, after the motion has been seconded, if anyone's opposed. If not, it passes without the need for discussion.

    • When a motion passes, make sure to get it implemented. If it's a one or two person job, call for volunteers. If it's a committee job refer it to the appropriate committee or set one up. Make sure we know who's going to do it, by when, and when we'll hear a report on it. Make sure the recorder gets all that in the minutes. Move on to the next item of business.

  • Often you'll need a break to get through a two hour meeting with a clearheaded group. We usually take five or ten minutes between old and new business. It's best if people will move around, go outside, make noise.

  • If there's too much business and you see that you're losing the membership, see if there are items that can be tabled. You have to ask the person whose item it is or the group about tabling something. The chair can't just do it without permission, but the chair can suggest it.

  • Nominations, Elections, and Installments of new branch officers, committees, and/or delegates take place after new business.  This will needn't occur at every business meeting, but if it is required, this is the place on the agenda where it would take place.

  • The last item is good and welfare. This is a more general discussion of things pertaining to the good and welfare of the group and it's members. It's less structured, more touchy-feely, if you will. It includes critique of the meeting and chair, somebody needs a place to live or a part for their car, somebody needs help or has extra zucchinis, somebody has a general feeling about how the group is doing, the direction it's moving. Stuff that matters, but doesn't really fit into the motion-making-and-implementation mode. It's the community part and deserves time and attention.

Pick your next chair, agree on the next meeting time and place and somebody can move to adjourn. No matter how good your meetings get you'll rarely hear anyone speak against a motion to adjourn.

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