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Never again announce the start time of a meeting without also announcing the END TIME. Your meeting is not Sunday at 7 pm. It's Sunday from 7 - 8:30 pm. Then, make absolute sure that you stick to that time, no matter what. If 8:30 comes, and you're only halfway through business, too bad. Meeting over. Next week everyone needs to try harder to have a more efficient meeting, including you as the person running it.
Let's face it. We all hate meetings that go on forever. They are boring and feel like a waste of everyone's time and energy. And frankly, you're damaging the morale of those members who have additional priorities. If I know your meeting is going to take no more than 90 minutes, then I can plan my time and devote my full attention to you for that hour and a half. If I fear it could go 2 or 3 hours, then I'm going to find a way to skip it so that I can study, spend time with my girlfriend, or watch television.
The first time you cut a meeting short, some members will be angry, particularly if your group has a history of long, drawn out meetings. The ones who protest are the ones who have nothing better to do than to sit there all night debating the color of the next party t-shirt.
But, you tell them, you have other obligations in your life, and so do many of your members. As the president of your organization, you have made a commitment to respect the time of your fellow members, so the meeting ends at the announced time. Everybody needs to do their part next week so that the meeting goes more quickly.
And, by the way, Panhellenic women, don't suspend this rule for recruitment, either. Those recruitment meetings are worse that Chinese water torture. Tell your recruitment chair to announce a start and end time, just like everyone else.
Folks, I run a $5 million company on a 90 minute staff meeting each week. I think you can run your student organization in the same amount of time. If not, you need to do some consulting with your advisor on how to make your meetings run more efficiently. Stop killing morale with long, horrible, inefficient meetings.
So to repeat... never again is anyone allowed to announce a meeting or event time in your group without also announcing an end time. And, as a leader, you will make sure that everyone sticks to those commitments. You will find the morale and commitment of your members increase, especially among those members who are leading busy lives.
