Hold a great meeting Activism guide • September 2016

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Getting together as a group is an important part of local organising. Meetings are opportunities for people to get to know each other, to plan actions and events and to share knowledge and skills.

A good meeting will feel useful and people will leave feeling better for having been there; empowered to make change happen, and energised about being involved.

Although there are no strict rules for organising a good meeting, there are definitely things you can do to make it easier for people to participate, to make the meeting feel useful and to keep energy levels high.

Why are you meeting?Make sure you have a clear purpose for each meeting and decide what you want to get out of it. Are you planning an event? Sharing information? Different types of meetings will be suited to different formats, venues and timings.

Where to meetThink about where you are going to meet in terms of access and the kind of space it is. Ideally you would meet in a fully accessible venue with good transport access. Meeting spaces with lots of natural light tend to be better for creative thinking. You may hold meetings in different places for different purposes. Community centres often have free or low-cost meeting rooms. Pubs can be good as they are free, although they can be noisy and off-putting to some.

If you’re looking to be involve new people in your group it’s a good idea to avoid meeting in someone’s home, which can be off-putting and make your group seem cliquey. It’s fine for painting a banner and the like, but should be avoided for anything which is externally advertised.

When to meetSome days are better for meeting than others. People tend to be freer earlier in the week and most groups avoid meeting on Friday evenings. Try to avoid clashing with other similar organising meetings or events which might draw people away. Think about who might be excluded by your meeting time and whether there are other ways people can be involved in discussions.

What kind of meeting is it?Different types of meetings will be suited to different spaces. For example you may choose to organise a social meet-up in a pub or to hold a creative planning meeting outdoors. You might want hold a conference call using Skype for example.

A good meeting not only gets work done, but also involves, supports and empowers the participants, creating a high level of energy and enthusiasm. A sense of community and connection to fellow group members is the basis for successful group work and social change. Good facilitation will help you to achieve all of this.

Seeds for Change: Facilitating Meetings

Photo: Global Justice N

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How often do you meet?Meeting regularly or when neededSome groups choose to hold regular meetings (often monthly) which is the simplest way of making sure people know when and where they take place. It also makes it easy for new people to get involved. You may choose to hold extra meetings in the run up to actons or an event, or hold additional social gatherings.

There’s a risk that monthly meetings can become stuck in a routine and lack energy. Because of this, some groups prefer to arrange meetings as and when they’re needed, for example ahead of actions or events. You can map out the next six months together and work out how many meetings you need and when they should take place. This gives each meeting a purpose which helps keep them dynamic.

The risk in organising in a more ad-hoc way is that it can be harder for people to know when meetings are happening and for new people to get involved. Regular meetings can also act as a prompt to keep organising activity, which in turn keeps people involved.

Welcoming new people Groups can develop their own meeting culture, especially if they’ve been running for a long time and people know each other well. This can be intimidating for newcomers who may find it difficult to contribute.

London Palestine Action has some tips on helping new people get stuck into meetings:

• Chat to new people when they arrive. Introduce yourself and find out about their interests and what brought them to the meeting. Explain how the meeting works.

• Start the meeting with a ‘buddying up’ exercise, where you pair people up (newer people with more frequent attendees) and give them a few minutes to talk about what they wanted to get out of the meeting.

• Make the first part of the meeting participatory (for example break into small group or pairs) so that people start off by feeling their opinion is valued.

Meeting outdoors can be great for creative planning

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Who’s doing the talking?Power dynamics which reflect structural oppressions along race, gender and class in society tend to play out in meeting spaces with certain people dominating discussions or interrupting.

People who are more confident with speaking in groups, or have been involved in the group for longer or who consider themselves more experienced can also dominate a discussion.

Take time to notice who is doing most of the talking and make sure everyone can participate.

If you are someone who tends to contribute a lot, sometimes stepping back can give others a chance to speak up. Don’t assume that people who don’t speak in a group don’t have anything to say.

Publicise your meetingsMake sure your meeting times and places are well publicised. Send reminders to your email list and keep your website and social media updated. You can put flyers up in community centres, libraries and cafés.

Putting together an agendaIt’s a good idea to prepare a draft agenda before your meeting. The facilitator can check in with others in the group or ask for suggestions over email or at the end of the previous meeting.

In planning the agenda, think about:

• What do you want the meeting to achieve? What decisions or plans need to be made? Is it a knowledge-sharing or a planning meeting?

• Have a mix of whole group discussion and people talking in groups and pairs. Different people are comfortable speaking in different contexts so it’s good to have a mix of group sizes.

Have your agenda on a big piece of paper or whiteboard so everyone can see it.

Facilitating meetingsFacilitation involves helping a group have effective discussions and making sure everyone can participate. A facilitator doesn’t make decisions for the group but facilitates the process for doing so. Good facilitation can make the difference between a meeting that feels useful and energising, and one that’s frustrating and disempowering. Facilitation includes:

• Keeping the meeting on track and on time

• Keeping a check on energy levels

• Getting the room ready and any materials needed (e.g flipchart paper and pens)

• Preparing a draft agenda (which can be done with others in the group)

• Making sure everyone can participate in collective decision-making

Having different people facilitating each meeting helps share power and responsibility in a group. Encourage new people to have a go and support them by buddying them with more experienced facilitators. It can be useful to have an external facilitator if your group is struggling.

Tips for facilitating meetings • Who’s doing most of the talking? Are some people dominating the discussion? You can do a ‘go-round’ to get everyone’s thoughts.

• Who’s making the decisions? Does everyone have equal power? Make sure you check in with everyone before finalising decisions.

• Who is taking on the work? Encourage different people to take on action points so the same few people don’t end up doing most of the work.

• Take breaks. If you feel the energy levels are dropping or discussions are getting stuck, a short break can refresh everybody.

• Things don’t have to be said in front of the whole group for them to be valuable. Small group and pair discussions which are then fed back tend to be much better for enabling everyone to participate and have their voices heard.

• The time outside of meetings is also really important, for example the moments before the meeting starts and after it has finished. You can use this time to talk to people who perhaps aren’t speaking much in meetings.

• Flip chart paper, or big sheets of paper is great for capturing ideas and making plans.

• Post-its are great for getting people to note down ideas or evaluate actions or events.

This guide is a collaboration between:Global Justice Now, 66 Offley Road, London SW9 0LS • 020 7820 4900 • globaljustice.org.ukCampaign Against Arms Trade, Unit 4, 5-7 Wells Terrace, London, N4 3JU • 020 7281 0297 • caat.org.uk Se

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Taking notesIt’s useful to record action points and decisions made in a meeting. These can be circulated to the group for people who couldn’t attend the meeting, and as a way of reminding people what has been decided. It also helps avoid misunderstandings about what has been agreed.

You can run through action points from the previous meeting at the start of each meeting to check-in with progress. Its a good idea for the note taker to not also be the facilitator of the meeting.

Closing a meeting • Run through decisions made and next steps.

• Remind people of actions and events.

• Agree details of the next meeting.

• ‘Closing circles’ are a great way to end a meeting and bring the group back together. For example, you could go round the circle with each person saying how they are feeling; or one thing they are going to go away and do.

How are meetings going?From time to time chck how people think things are going (especially if you’re a group that has been running for a long time). Taking time to reflect can re-energise people and make meetings more strategic.

Useful reourcesHow to Facilitate Meetings: The No-Magic Method, 350.org trainings.350.org/for/meeting-facilitators

An in-depth guide to facilitation seedsforchange.org.uk/facilitationmeeting

Making meetings accessible seedsforchange.org.uk/accessiblemtg

If you would like to build people’s confidence and skills in facilitation, you could organise facilitation training for your group. This can be done through Global Justice Now or Campaign Against Arms Trade. Several activist collectives also offer this including Seeds for Change and London Roots.

A meeting’s energy levelsWe can all help shape a meeting’s energy levels and shift the mood in the room - especially when discussions feel tense or like they’re not getting anywhere.

• Name it! Saying what you’re feeling out loud can help. You can also make a suggestion to change it. Do it in a light-touch way e.g. “It might just be me, but energy levels are feeling quite low. Shall we have a quick break?”

• Summarise where the discussion has got to on a piece of flipchart paper

• Have a break

• Humour can help break up tension

Non-verbal communication to look out for:

• Body language: are people yawning/ dozing, sagging, fidgeting, leaving?

• Facial expressions; are people alert or ‘not there’, looking upset, staring off into space?

• Side conversations: are they distracting to the facilitator or to the group?

• People interrupting each other.

• If energy is low, a quick game or stretch may wake people up. A period of silence or self-reflection might also be helpful when people may have a chance to relax a bit and look for new insights.

Exerpt from Berit Lakey’s ‘Meeting Facilitation: the No-Magic Method’, Training for Change