4 Tips for an Electrifying Monthly Meeting

In my first three weeks with Oxfam I have heard from most of our 15 Action Corps cities about how they are taking on monthly meetings. Getting these monthly meetings to go smoothly is no easy task – balancing the fun with business, catering to newbies as well as old hands, watching the clock and competing with café noise! So I really took notice when Action Corps in San Francisco sent an email about their “amazing!” meeting of nine volunteers that still had them reverberating with energy the following day!

We asked Amy Torregrossa from the SF Bay Area Action Corps to share tips on how she and her co-leader Jessica Shao pulled it off:

1. Relaxed atmosphere: We went to a tea house in the mission. It was very relaxing but intimate and we were all sitting around a round table, so there was not a "classroom feel". I think if we were in a room where there was an obvious "front" to it, where Jessica and I would naturally occupy, then it would have been a very different feel. It was nice to all be at the same level.

2. Short but important agenda: Jessica printed an agenda that had 4 sections: Introductions, Ray Offenheiser's visit, Upcoming Opportunities and Brainstorming. It all fit on a small sheet. This helped because everyone knew what to anticipate at the beginning of the meeting but the agenda was also flexible enough that it allowed people to voice their ideas and opinions.

3. Ask not Tell: I think this was one of the main aspects of the meeting. After we spoke about a subject, for example, the pot luck, we asked for feedback and opinions before making a decision. Nothing felt top down, each decision was very much organic.

4. Action Items: After each section we made sure that an action item was discussed and delegated, no matter how small. It made the meeting have a purpose.The result was a meeting in which members were "extremely engaged."



 Do you have a tried and true method in your city? Feel free to share them with us at actioncorps@oxfamamerica.org.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!
Zoe

Amy and Jessica from San Francisco at the DC Training!