All Officers
4. Executive Meetings
One good indicator of RDG clubs is consistent, monthly officer meetings. There are any number of formats to be used, but here are some suggested ones. The goals of these meetings include:
- Identify new and existing problems and issues
- Discuss possible solutions
- Select a solution, assign people, set deadline
- Check the club's DCP progress
- Check how other initiatives are proceeding
- Identify upcoming events & promotions
The first step is to make sure officers have agendas and expectations to prepare for the meeting.
At the meeting, the president will step through reports from the officers in either bottom-up (SAA starts) or top-down order (president starts). Each officer should report on issues related to their role; general discussion can be held at the end. The president should announce new initiatives and the status of current initiatives.
The second comes from Lance Miller. The president conducts one-on-one meetings with the officers (once per month at minimum) to go in-depth with each of them, and hosts a brief, once per month "reports meeting" is conducted with all officers. The reports meeting has officers report on relevant portions of their tasks, such as VPE reporting on educational goal progress, VPM talking about membership levels, and so on. This allows the executive meeting to run relatively quickly.
No matter what format you use, try to have an agenda and possibly a timer of some kind to prevent too many digressions. As with meetings, going past 90 minutes without a break will cause focus to wander; try to keep these meetings to 45 minutes or less. A sample agenda is on the next page.
When having these meetings, make sure your secretary documents meeting minutes. They should also document to dos for each officers, including who will do what, by when. A meeting minutes mail out with these to dos should be mailed out within 48 hours of the officer meeting. Lack of follow through is the main cause of club mediocrity, and this report will help remind people of what needs to be done.
Effective and consistent officer meetings are a key part of building the RDG club. Don't neglect them.