On Nonprofits
September 2004

RESOURCES FOR RUNNING MORE EFFECTIVE MEETINGS

Q: I’ve been asked to staff a committee where the chairman hasn’t run meetings before. He wants to do it right and is turning to me.  He seems to want more specifics than I can give him.  Can you refer me to any books on the subject?

A: There are a number of resources that will help your chairman avoid running meetings that leave committee members feeling like Milton Berle who believed that meetings are a place where men keep minutes but waste hours.

For a generic step-by-step guide, check out How to Make Meetings Work by Michael Doyle and David Straus (Berkeley Books).  First published in 1976, a revised edition is available on Amazon.com. 

Written specifically for our sector is Outi Flynn’s Meet Smarter: A Guide to Better Nonprofit Board Meetings, published by BoardSource (2004).  You might also want to refer to the chapters on meetings in Nonprofit Board Answer Book by Robert Andringa and Ted Engstrom (National Center for Nonprofit Boards, 1997) and Secrets of Successful Boards: The Best from the Non-Profit Pros, edited by Carol Weisman (F. E. Robbins & Sons, 1998).  These three items are available through BoardSource, 800-883-6262 or online at www.boardsource.org.

I’ve reviewed parts of the upcoming book tentatively entitled Garber’s Rules of Order: A Manual for Successful Board Meetings, by Nathan Garber.  If you can wait a couple of months I know you will find this a valuable resource.  To be notified when it rolls off the press contact Nathan@GarberConsulting.com.   Meanwhile, read Nathan’s “Chairperson’s Checklist for Great Meetings” in Nonprofit Boards and Governance Review at http://charitychannel.com/articles/article_6203.shtml.

Let me also suggest an article entitled “You May Need to Think about Meetings in a Whole New Way” by Larry D. Lauer (Nonprofit World, March/April 1995). You can find this and other helpful articles on a CD-ROM entitled “Welcome to Nonprofit World,” produced by the National Society of Nonprofit Organizations.  To get a copy, call 800-424-7367 or log onto www.danenet.org/snpo.

Also, check out the Internet. A Google search shows close to six million references to effective meetings.  Two of my favorites: the Effective Meetings site at www.effectivemeetings.com and colleague Carter McNamara’s “Basic Guide to Conducting Effective Meetings” at www.mapnp.org/library/misc/mtgmgmnt.htm.   By the way, if you’re not familiar with Carter’s Free Management Library it is a treasure trove of information for nonprofits.