Bill Reichart has a great post here on meetings...

Churches are notorious for meetings. We actually have meetings in order to plan meetings!
I am sure this can be true in just about every professional setting. Meetings can be a problematic. Too many meetings. Unproductive meetings. Boring meetings.
People,
as busy enough as they are, don't want to go to meetings just for the
sake of going to meetings. And since, in the church, most of the people
we work with are volunteers, as a leader, you have to work extra hard
on making meetings worthwhile when you have them. Because since you
don't pay volunteers you can't order them to come to the next meeting
you call.
Here are some helpful thoughts and tips that I have discovered to help avoid, "Death by Meetings".
Be judicious with meetings!
I
try to only call meetings with my volunteers and leaders only when I
have to. And most of the meetings that I do call are well planned and
scheduled in advance. Try not to spring too many last minute, emergency
meetings on people.
Know why you are meeting.
What
do you want to accomplish? What are your anticipated outcomes? If you
don't know the answers to those questions, then you don't need to meet!
To often we think that if people just meet together than productivity
will ignite. Not true! You must plan and prepare before you meet.
Review past notes and information before you meet. Don't wing meetings.
Have an agenda to guide your time and to forecast for the participants
where you are going and what you intend to accomplish.
Infuse value into your meetings.
What
you invest into your current meeting opportunities will produce
dividends for future meetings. If your meetings are engaging,
purposeful and productive then people will see value in them. If your
meetings help move the church or organization toward it's greater
vision than people will see value in them. And if people see the value
of your time together, they are more likely to carve out time and make
future investments to meet.
The rest of his points are:
Not all things can be accomplished in meetings.
Think through creative alternatives to face-to-face meetings.
What you do after the meeting is just as important.
Check it out here!
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