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I don't think I would cancel meetings....to me that would just increase apathy ("well, there wasn't anything important enough to meet about last week, there's probably nothing important going on this week, so I'll just skip the meeting")
When you say only people who "hand in a report" get to speak, what does that mean exactly? What kind of report are you talking about? The way you explained it was that if a member doesn't hand in a report, they can't voice their opinion. I can see how that would discourage a lot of brothers from participating...because how do they know what their opinion is before the business is presented to them? If you're talking about someone submitting the "new business" to be placed on the agenda, that's a little different. You'd want to set your agenda in advance, so you can stay on track during the meeting. However, I'd let people voice their opinion on the business (that was properly placed on the agenda) before a vote. Educate your members on the 'limit debate' motion and use it to keep the discussion to a minimum. Otherwise, it could seem to the members that the exec committee is too controlling because they want to see everything in writing before a meeting.
Another great idea we had for meetings was to arrange the tables/desks into either a rectangle or a circle. That way, we could all see each other (and everyone could see us if we weren't paying attention), it felt like we were all included in the discussion, and it seemed less of a "power difference" between those sitting up front and those sitting in the "audience".
Those might help your meetings run a little better.
PsychTau
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