Length of Chapter Meeting

[AOII Angel]

Originally Posted by pshsx1

All of the non-NPHC orgs at my school meet weekly as well. I can't speak for the NPHC orgs since they don't talk about when/where they meet.

For SigEp, our meetings are usually about an hour. We also try to keep them an hour for presentations as well. We will perform a paper-only meeting if there is an event after the meeting as well.

When I first joined, though, I experienced normal meetings that went 3 hours long. Thank goodness we're long past that point!!!!

Holy God! That's worse than any old school Membership meeting I ever sat through. I'd DIE.

[MysticCat]

Count us in with the chapters who met weekly. I think that most of our chapters do that. The Fraternity recommends weekly meetings, although the requirement is at least two meetings per month.

When you meet that often, an hour should normally be plenty of time.

[WCsweet<3]

Met weekly unless it was dead week (all reports emailed to members) or finals week.

We always tried to keep it under an hour. I remember when I was a new member the President always asked the people giving reports to keep it under two minutes. Few actually could do this, but it as a consistant effort.

[clarinette]

We meet weekly. The reason it takes so long is because we have to get through reports from 10 elected offices and 10 chair positions, plus we have "sharing items" (stuffed animals, CD, etc that get passed around). This has also been a really busy year for us, so they've been longer this year than usual.

[DeltaBetaBaby]

Originally Posted by clarinette

We meet weekly. The reason it takes so long is because we have to get through reports from 10 elected offices and 10 chair positions, plus we have "sharing items" (stuffed animals, CD, etc that get passed around). This has also been a really busy year for us, so they've been longer this year than usual.

But really, does every one of those people have a critical update every week?

[clarinette]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

But really, does every one of those people have a critical update every week?

If they have nothing, they just say, "No report", and we move on. The past presidents have been really good about making sure that people don't waste the rest of the sisterhood's time, so reports, unless there's something important/serious going on, don't take longer than 10 minutes, and that upper limit is usually used by the 2 VP's or the president.

Most of the time is taken up with people asking questions so that everything is completely clear.

We also have a weekly meeting for the elected officers to take care of some things so that they don't need to be completely rehashed in chapter.

[jazing]

Our chapters used to run 2+ hours. But after viewing how larger chapters do meetings in under that time, we've adjusted to be less than 1.5 hours. It's still hard, considering our reports can get quite extensive.

[Psi U MC Vito]

It's funny, but when I was an UG, 3 hour meetings were the norm.I never would have imagined only an hour.

[jazing]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

It's funny, but when I was an UG, 3 hour meetings were the norm.I never would have imagined only an hour.

We started to limit open forum to 5 minutes max, but then brothers just kept motioning to extend it.

[Smile_Awhile]

My collegiate chapter meetings typically last 1 hour for informal meetings, and 1.5 hours for formal meetings. My fiance's, on the other hand, are never shorter than 2 hours. I feel for him...

[33girl]

Make sure you are using Roberts' Rules of Order.

Also, don't get hung up on OMG WE WENT OVER THE AVERAGE TIME. There are going to be meetings where there are things that need discussed more than other weeks, and no you can't have it on paper only, and no you can't do it in committee. But keeping the meetings flowing as a standard practice will result in a lot less bitching and a lot less "screw it, who gives a rat's ass, let's go home" when there IS something that truly needs discussion.

[Psi U MC Vito]

What is this paper meeting that people mentioned?

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

What is this paper meeting that people mentioned?

Paper meeting = no actual meeting. Everything that would've been in meeting is put on a piece of paper and distributed to everyone.

Some chapters email it to everyone.

With ours, we had to come to the house some time during the week to pick one up.

[pshsx1]

Originally Posted by Psi U MC Vito

What is this paper meeting that people mentioned?

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

[jazing]

I'd have to say a major problem we have is that most of us don't know Roberts' Rules of Order. My pledgemaster wanted to teach it to us, but he couldn't fit it within the program. I think it is something that should be taught.