Chapter Starter Kit:
Your First Meeting
Introduction
This section will help you get some ideas on how exactly to make that first impression once all your hard advertising work has paid off. It will most certainly do you no good to get 200 people to a meeting if you’re the only one who comes back for the second. Planning this meeting will be as important as actually presenting it to your audience.
Pre-Meeting Notes
While there are many important aspects to your meeting that are much more mportant than this one, I’ll begin by making sure that you know to find yourself an acceptable meeting place. University lecture halls offer a great opportunity for this aspect and can often be rented out for little to no cost once classes have been dismissed on a weekday. Depending on your expected turnout, a simple classroom or even a convenient outdoor location will be acceptable. Remember to check with your host institution on everything. Some universities have designated meeting times and areas. Some will be very upset if you plan this without them. Please check.
Second, try not to do this by yourself. Contact friends (faculty is EXCELLENT) who share your interest in space. Before your first general meeting, select a list of jobs for people to handle beforehand. Familiarize them with SEDS-USA and our suggestions for success. Some suggestions are having somebody handling requesting a room, someone finding food for the meeting, someone collecting names of potential members, someone advertising, someone organizing, etc.
Third, don’t procrastinate. A successful meeting will not be planned hours in advance, but days (even weeks?). You will find this theme over and over and over again. There are people in charge, and then there are people who take charge. Things don’t just happen, and a college student’s interest is very erratic. You will need to be persistent, encouraged, and always willing to work.
Agenda
An important tool for staying on track at meetings is a written agenda prepared beforehand. This prevents two undesirable, possible outcomes: A meeting rambling on without end; or a meeting cut too short with important topics left out. In it, you should include a numbered list of topics you want to cover.
Making the Meeting Attractive Once You’re There
Okay, besides not looking unorganized and having good material, there are certain aesthetic points that need to be made about a successful meeting. (And I don’t just mean wear something nice.) The meeting time should be restrained. A good running time is 30-45 minutes for an informational meeting. Long enough to hold some solid information, and short enough to avoid boredom. During the meeting, you’ll want to offer your new friends some snacks, pop, and chips. (Offering them afterwards can impose an incentive to stay, so that’s good too.) Be loud and articulate when you and your partners talk.
The "Content"
As with anything else, introduce yourself and your helpers at the start of the meeting. Then tell them why they are there. Introduce SEDS. You can include any information you want, but don’t let this dominate your meeting. You’ll want to spend the majority of your time explaining what this group will do and how they can get involved.
During the meeting, it would be a good idea to send around an attendance sheet. This is a good way to collect email addresses, member info, and suggestions. Another good idea is to put on this sheet a list of projects that you will have during the year and let them check off ones that they are interested in being a part of.
Some good ideas for topics to cover will be a list of your projects, the people that will be involved, how much fun they will have, and about their requirements as members. Share your feeling and your enthusiasm.
Before everybody leaves after your meeting, you will need to make sure of several things as well. For one, note that the people that stay around and talk are probably your best source for project leaders and executive board positions. Also, set up a time for a second meeting. It does not have to be a general meeting, but give these people an instant reason to come back. It may be a good idea, even, to start delegating tasks right from the start. See who wants to do what and give them an instant chance.
After the Meeting
DON’T LOSE THAT SIGN-UP SHEET! This is when your power to lead will come in. More so than before, you should at this point be delegating tasks and taking on some of your own. Organize the people you’ve met into their level and their area of interest in helping out. Contact them accordingly and get them back for future meetings. It would be a good idea to perhaps have your society simply be a large mass of subcommittees that meet regularly as a large group (say, for a movie night or something). Again, anything is possible, and don’t let any idea get past you. Your anti-procrastination efforts will pay off, just remember that the post-meeting is when you will be working the hardest.
