Coffee date

In my experience, the way networking happens in the nonprofit world, and in particular, the nonprofit policy/advocacy world, is you meet for a coffee date. And I believe there is a certain formula to make this work. First, you do your intro's and lay out why you wanted to get together for the coffee meeting. I think this is where you get a feel for how formal or informal your conversation with this person is going to be. Second, you get your business covered. You learn about what they're doing right now, what their plans are for the future, how you might be able to work together, etc. Last, you might share a little bit of work related rumor or gossip, but only if you got the feel for this in Step one. All the while, you are enjoying a cappuccino or latte or some other special coffee drink, rather than the swill back in the office.

Signage

For a large "meeting" or event, signage can make or break it from the start. When people first arrive, if they are greeted with a welcome and clear directions about how to proceed through appropriate signage, I think it makes the meeting go so much better. I'm hesitant to complain about Minneapolis DFL events since I haven't bucked up and gotten more actively involved. Unfortunately, they are all to often a perfect example of the need for better signage. At our Senate District's annual picnic, a newbee would feel much more welcomed with a welcome sign. And at our convention, signs directing you where to enter, where to go to check-in, where to get help, etc., would alleviate some of the stress and chaos. Now turning to an example of someone with good use of signage: my colleague Kate. At our annual lobby day at the Minnesota State Capitol, she has signage down to an art. Big, colorful signs with clear directionals. Thoughtfully placed to lead people to the right place. I keep encouraging Kate to get more involved with the DFL!

Book Babes

One of my book clubs met tonight. We've been meeting for more than 8 years, and in that time we've gone through a few permutations. One of the things we do really well is work together to figure out how best we want to run our book club. We've fallen into a pattern where the host speaks first, explains why they chose their "text" (can be book, poetry, movie, magazine or just a good topic for that matter). Then we go around the circle and each of us comments, or comes clean about not having read the book (no judgments, gosh I love this book club). Discussion ensues for as long as needed until we've exhausted our text discussion and have drifted to family, politics, work, whatever. One last thing about our meeting tonight: our host, Robbie, often delights us with a theme, often based on the geographical setting of the book. Tonight we had treats from Norway and Sweden. I couldn't pronounce most of it, but enjoyed it all nonetheless.

bnet

Hey, somebody is paying attention! My friend and colleague Grit passed on this link. As far as I can tell, it says the same stuff that I'm saying here, but in a more practical way, and looks fancier: http://www.bnet.com/2403-13059_23-61211.html

Who's in charge here???

Oftentimes a meeting goes south because no one is in charge. Now I know I'm talking about one dominant culture's idea about what a meeting is and how it should go, but yeah, that's what I'm talking about. When someone is supposed to be in charge, but doesn't know how to be, or doesn't want to take charge, or worst of all, they think they are in charge, but they're not, a meeting can cause real, physical, psychological PAIN. So if you want to have a successful meeting, identify a person to be in charge. Make sure this person wants to be or is at least willing to be in that role and either has some natural ability or is willing to learn meeting management skills.

Rituals

OK, I have to out myself in order to write this post on rituals related to a meeting's success. About what do I need to come out, you ask? In college, I was in a Greek sorority. Chi Omega. And I wasn't just in the sorority, I was the president during part of my junior and senior years. But here's the deal: I learned a lot about how to run a meeting during those days. Yes, we really did have a secret handshake (I think it might have been called a grip) and a secret password. But by entering the chapter meeting after doing the grip and whispering the password, you were kind of transformed into this special meeting mode. There were other rituals related to the beginning and end of the meetings and other secret stuff that I honestly do not remember. But in fact, we had real responsiblities that required real actions and I believe the rituals, based in decades-long tradition, helped us have good meetings.

Half and half

A board colleague of mine, Ellen, brings half and half to every board meeting. It makes the coffee taste so much better, and sort of makes us all huddle together to get our work done. Little things like this actually makes one look forward to a meeting.

Memories of a fine meeting

When I was about 23 years old, I worked at a group home for boys in York, Nebraska. I worked there for a very short time, but while I was there I got to experience the meeting magic of Andrea, our supervisor. She was quiet, didn't say too much. But she had a briliant presence about her. She knew how to run a staff meeting! When things were tense, she got us through it. You came away from those meetings feeling like something had just been accomplished, and knowing what you were supposed to do next.