| Each committee should have at least 3 members minimum participation. If your committee doesn't have this, we should work to achieve this number so that we can develop some team effort and share the load. Membership is growing daily, so this won't be a problem.
Each volunteer should be committed to devoting at least 1 hour of work, and 1 hour of meeting time (hopefully less) per week, for committee work and can be counted on for this. If you find yourself spread too thin amongst too many committees or other activities, don't be embarrassed to say you just bit off too much and need to bow out for now. This is much better than leading people on letting them think you will be there when you're really not that available. We have some people on 4 or 5 committees. I love the heart, but is it realistic?
By now, each committee should have a chairperson voted, volunteered or otherwise 'shanghaied'! This person should establish a time and place for a regularly scheduled weekly meeting and set the written agenda for that meeting so you can take care of business promptly and efficiently working down the agenda list. Share the agenda with the team in advance so everyone can prepare accordingly. Stick to it at the meeting. Set a time and place for the meeting which is the same every week and people will either make it or they won't. It's almost never perfect for everyone all the time. Having an audio recording is not a bad idea. You can download free programs onto your computer to create your own audio file.
After the chairperson, there should be a secretary to keep notes of the meetings. What was discussed and decided? who is doing what? what are the goals and time frames? And ultimately, provide a summary and progress report to review at the beginning of the following meeting and the Monday general member calls.
The general purpose of each meeting is to review results of work achieved during the week, and discuss priorities for work that lies ahead with delegation of duties to the various committee members.
Please designate at least one person to be on the Monday member calls to give us the report. This should be the secretary, or a pre-arranged alternate when needed.
This is old hat to anyone who's ever been on a board or team of any kind before. But not everyone has. I hope this can help narrow focus and functionality so that we can start developing some fantastic results from your efforts.
Thanks so much, not only from me, but from all the members who are counting on you!
Mark |
