It is important to meet with everyone on your team regularly to maintain an active line of communication, plan the semester, and delegate the work of running your chapter. Here you will learn what an E-Board meeting looks like, how often and where they should occur, as well as some tips for running them well.
Contents:
Things to discuss at a chapter meeting:
Start with asking how everyone is doing. It may sound cheesy, but a friendly companionship and care for one another goes a long way.
An optional next step is an Icebreaker Question. Here is a great list of questions you can browse. These serve as a good way to get everyone in the room talking.
And then, you get into club business. Here is a list of a few things you could discuss at your meeting:
Does anyone need help with anything? Sometimes just giving someone the field to ask for advice, resources, or simply a spare hand could be very useful.
- Tabling - How is it going? Are there enough people at the table? Should you reach out to more Student Ambassadors to come hangout at the table?
- Events? - Are you planning any events? Does the event planner need help? Have you found a speaker?
- General scheduling - when is pledge week? Should we start advertising for pledge week?
- Are you on track to achieve your goals as a chapter? Is there anything more you could do?
When and where they should happen:
This depends on any number of factors - If Covid is still around, maybe you will be forced to run an E-meeting. If the library study rooms are constantly taken, you could grab a meal together. You could find an empty class room to takeover. Generally, here are our tips:
- Try to keep the meetings to less than 30-45 minutes. Any longer and people may become bored or feel like time is being wasted.
- Try your best to find a consistent time where everyone is free. Are you all happy to get together on Sunday night? Great. Tuesday during lunch? Perfect. Consistency is far easier to plan around and will make it less likely for someone to miss.
- Be consistent as well with how often you meet. This is up to you and how much meeting you think is helpful. Many chapters choose to meet every two weeks, although some need more or less time together than that.
- It is helpful to have access to at least one laptop during the meeting. If someone has an idea to run an event in the biggest auditorium on your campus, it is much easier to simply look up then and there if that auditorium is reservable rather than waiting for later on. Therefore, any meetings that are moving (e.g. walking, driving) are not recommended.
- Have it be in talkable setting. Sitting on a train station bench may be too loud, and sitting in a library may be too quiet. Be somewhere where everyone can talk with ease.
- Make sure the setting is compatible for all your E-board members needs. If someone requires a place that is ADA-compliant, make sure to find one. If you do not know if your members have specific needs, ask them!
Tips for running one well:
Get there early.
Be friendly. There is nothing better than a consistent, nice presence from a leader.
Offer help. More than anything, you, as a Chapter Leader, are there to help them! Do they need anything?
