[Kevin]

The best way to shortened meetings involves accomplishing 3 things.

#1 Sort out major decisions in committees. Meetings are for making decisions as a group, not hashing through details.

#2 Educate members in the value of good meeting skills. For example, teach them that when they speak in a meeting, it is important to make sure that what they're saying is something NEW. If they agree with what someone else said, their vote will show that. One of the biggest contributors to long meetings is to have long discourses amongst the members -- usually when you analyze the content of these conversations there are about 1 or 2 viewpoints present.

#3 Use proper parliamentary procedure. This needs no explanation.

-- Meetings aren't for fun. They are for planning what should be fun. They are a business-like environment and something I think gives GLO members a HUGE leg-up on the rest of outgoing college grads.