EDAD 612

Danny Costa
How to Run an Effective Meeting

During the evening of Tuesday, September 11, I attended the weekly meeting of the community’s

school bond committee, Safe and Strong Bonsall Schools. This was the ninth meeting of the committee,

which was formed in late May. The committee will continue to meet through mid-November, after the

November midterm election. I am one of the original members and regularly attend these meetings. The

committee met at a private home, as per group norms. The committee’s objective is to secure passage of

Measure EE, a $38M local-control school bond measure with three outcomes: 1) $31M to build Phase 1

of the permanent Bonsall High School on district-owned property off of Gird Road/Highway 76; 2) $7M

split between security, gating, and cameras at all Bonsall Unifed School District campuses; and 3) track

and field renovations/construction at all Bonsall Unified School District campuses. Historically, this is the

second bond measure effort to build the permanent Bonsall High School. Measure DD, a $58M local-

control school bond measure, failed in 2016 after garnering 51.2% of the required 55% majority.

The meeting was scheduled to begin at 6PM. However, it is rare that the committee meetings do

start exactly on time, as many members are coming from all parts of San Diego County at the end of the

workday. Typically, committee meetings start by 6:15PM. This flexibility is understood as a group norm,

and no one is ever made to feel that her/his tardiness is delinquent to the cause. I arrived at 6PM, and

greeted a few committee members who were visiting in the garden. Soon after, we went inside to greet

other committee members, and the meeting was started by 6:10PM. An agenda, which had already been

emailed out the previous day, was available as paper copy. The agenda provides a compass for the

discussion (Bryant, n.d.), and we have used agendas from our first meeting. Four main topics were on the

agenda: 1) treasurer’s report; 2) review and approval of turf captain packet; 3) review and approval of

mobile app training guide packet; and 4) review and approval of multimedia communication plan. While

our usage of agendas has been constant and sent out well ahead of meeting times, we do not tag action

items with time constraints. Being that the committee members are familiar and friendly with one another,
the atmosphere is always casual and relaxing; this is opposite to a Robert’s Rules of Order-structured

meeting. The meeting started with our chairperson thanking everyone for attending, and then the meeting

went right into the treasurer’s report. Our treasurer is perhaps the most serious member of the team, so

when he gives the financial report everyone becomes a bit more serious and gives him complete silence.

Soon, we moved onto approval of the turf captain packet, mobile app training guide packet, and

multimedia communication plan. Reviewing these materials was the most exciting portion of the meeting,

as many of our original plans were now coming to fruition. Norms, which were casual to begin with, were

completely dropped as we let our collective excitement take over the meeting. This led to a period during

the meeting of progress and anticipation, but also a significant drop of efficiency. The various items were

eventually approved, action items of neighborhood canvasing and volunteer recruitment were identified,

and we finally adjourned the meeting at 8:30PM.

According to Adam Bryant of the New York Times, every meeting must follow three rules: set an

agenda, follow start/end times, and end each meeting with action items. Upon reflection, our committee

meeting met two of Bryant’s three criteria: setting an agenda and action items. It is pertinent that future

meetings are much more time-sensitive. Although many of us are friends, we let time get away from us

and finally concluded the meeting after 2.5 hours, on a week night. Surely the items could’ve been

completed within 1.5 hours. We need to be aware of the time wasted in order for efficiency to be

respected. Meetings in a professional setting are not opportunities to socialize or to fill time aimlessly;

they are instruments for conducting business (Olson, 2010). I now realize that although I left the meeting

feeling very excited from the camaraderie and our collective progress, I was also tired from the sheer

length and aimless chatter.

Bryant, A. (n.d.). How to run a more effective meeting. NY Times. Retrieved from:

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/how-to-run-an-effective-meeting

Olson, G.A. (2010). How to run a meeting. Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved from:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/How-to-Run-a-Meeting/66237