Let’s paint the scene of the typical Annual General Meeting (AGM) . A group of volunteers who have given up an evening after a full day at the 9–5 job and have driven in peak traffic to the meeting venue. They aren’t getting paid for this time but are greeted with tea bags and and an unlimited supply of instant coffee to get them through it ☕️.

You, the Chair, sit down with your agenda that’s a mile long from the last meeting. The minute taker is armed with a couple of pens and may even have a fresh notebook for the evening 📝.

You open the meeting and move through the agenda but as there are no time limits you spend half an hour talking about the colour of the training uniforms.

Three hours later, you are three quarters through the agenda! ⏳

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Be smart with your time, your time is priceless.

When chairing a meeting:

• Note who should speak to a topic and indicate when a person may speak
• Be responsible for keeping the discussion to the subject
• Decide when discussion should be brought to an end
• Don’t get involved in the discussion unless their opinion is sought
• Summarise the issue under discussion, to aid in decision making and to make life easier for the minute taker.
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To learn more about hosting meetings with TidyHQ, head to https://tidyhq.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/201523563-Meetings

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