If our chapter didn't meet we called it electronic chapter and the secretary emailed out the minutes (all officers and chairwomen would email her their announcements).

We averaged 1 hour but there were some chapters (i.e. formal chapter, revision of bylaws, elections) that we all knew would probably go longer. But we also had a clause in our bylaws that after any motion was made that discussion could last only 5 minutes (monitored by our parliamentarian) and then after 5 minutes we would have to vote to extend the time or just vote on whatever it was. That helped us speed up our meetings considerably.

The basic rules that the average member needs to know can fit on one sheet of paper. Everyone in the chapter should have a copy.

Do you have someone who serves as parliamentarian? For us, that was the warden, and it was his job to make sure Roberts' Rules were being followed. He can "teach" the chapter by example.

Do an educational meeting on Roberts' Rules. It's worth the effort.

Here is a useful reference sheet on Robert's Rules of Order: http://files.meetup.com/1279233/Simp...lesofOrder.pdf

We call ours the Sentinel, but he doesn't know it well either. My pledgemaster used to do check to make sure it was followed otherwise, but he graduated. If I could see this sheet of paper I could give it to all the members.

:)

^^^ Couple that with this and you should be good to go.

My chapter calls it a "Yale Meeting." Basically, the agenda isn't just bullet points; it's a full breakdown of everything that would normal be discussed verbally. Usually, we'll maybe discuss 1 or 2 things that need to be discussed, but you're supposed to read the rest on your own.

The President monitors our discussions as a chapter since we use a loose version of Robert's Rules. If things are getting repetitive or we're not reaching a conclusion, he'll help guide discussion or end it.

Also, our 300 chair positions and committees only report if there is something very specific to them that they need to report. Otherwise, the Vice President (5 of them) or other Executive Board Position (Chaplain and President) that oversees them will report for them.

Also, discussions that need to happen between different E-Board members or committees or whatever are usually taken care of outside of the meeting. This way, things are more streamlined and we can just report on what is actually happening.

For example, if the Social Chair and the Brotherhood Development Chair need to work together for an event, brainstorming and what not will happen on their own. At our meeting, they will just announce what is actually happening.

Another way that we trim the fat off of our meetings is that we have meeting "activities" dedicated to each Executive Board member. For example, at the beginning of the school year, at our first meeting, we had our normal meeting, closed, and then we had a session about all of the Programming events that we had in mind for the school year and why/how we wanted to do them. We do this a lot of speakers, presentations, brotherhood events, etc. This way, it is also optional if someone really can't stay for the extra stuff.

/novel

Our exec is actually shorter than normal chapter (E-board is 1 hour). I think part of it is people just not listening and asking questions that have already been covered. We're getting better about that portion though.

Currently, we try to hold our chapters to <1 hour, although certain chapters (room picks, elections) do get rather lengthy. Our Eboard also tries to keep it to less than 2 hours. When I first joined the house, chapters were at least 1 hour, generally 2, and E-board was 6-8 hours!! (Yes, you read that right!)

My bf's fraternity, on the other hand, has minimum 2 hour chapters. He topped out at 9 pm-2 am when they had elections one day, and that was after having 6-10 the weekend before for the first half of elections.

How did E-Board last for 6 hours? Is there an extended dinner break and group back massage in there? :p

I don't even want to talk about Fraternity elections... By the end, I'm banging my head on the table and eating paint off of the walls.

They never had anything planned, so they'd plan stuff in the meeting. That combined with a meddling chapter advisor (thankfully, she's gone) and they lasted an eternity! We'd sometimes have to wait outside of chapter for them to finish