Meeting Management

1. Meeting Management

2. Meeting Management Learning Objectives Learn and demonstrate the ability to plan, prepare, conduct and follow up on meetings. Meeting Management

3. Meeting Management Skills Relevance Why is this subject covered? Meeting management is a key soft skill that cluster staff need to have to coordinate a variety of actions and actors. How does this relate to my day to day tasks? Cluster staff routinely hold meetings with different partners (responding agencies, government, affected populations, donors), to coordinate assessment and analysis, strategy development, resource mobilization, and advocacy. Staff must ensure meetings are purposeful and productive. Meeting Management Skills

4. Meeting Management – Cluster Roles Programmatic Response

5. Meeting ManagementRole Play

6. Meeting ManagementExercise - Objectives • Identify and address common cluster/humanitarian coordination challenges • Share tips and best practices for addressing these challenges • Discuss what can be done before, during and after cluster meetings to ensure more successful meetings You are invited to attend a cluster meeting, at the Peace House at Sloma City, to support coordination of an effective humanitarian response Meeting Management 6

7. Meeting ManagementExercise – Role Play Instruction Meeting Role Play - Slomania • 9 volunteers: • Cluster Coordinator • Information Manager • WFP • FAO • Slomanian National Red Cross • Samaritan SLOCON (local, main NGO) • World Friendly Vision • UNDP • CRS • The rest of us will be ‘co-cluster coordinators’ Meeting Management

8. Meeting ManagementMeeting Agenda • Share information and facilitate collaboration – Who is doing what where? • Agree on team to be sent to do a ‘joint’ rapid needs assessment in the Northern affected areas. • Agree on next steps to develop a joint emergency response plan Meeting Management

9. Meeting ManagementExercise – Debrief Role Play • Observers: What were the common coordination meeting challenges? Coordinator: What were the meeting challenges? • How well were the local actors integrated? (SLOCON, National Red Cross)? • Identify good meeting management and facilitation practices • Identify 1 to 2 things which would most improve this meeting Meeting Management

10. Before • Prepare objective, agenda, attendance list • Secure right attendees; personal contact • Choose appropriate venue, time/date • Send clear invites in advance • Assign roles (co-chair, note taker, etc.) • Ensure meeting is necessary, focused, and provides unique value

11. During: • Lead the meeting (confidence) • Review agenda and ground rules • Guide using active listening, summary • Balance agenda/timeframe with discussion/inclusion • Avoid personal focus, arguments Challenges • Discussion off topic or agenda hijacked • Participants do not contribute • Large participant group • Sensitive meeting topics • Agenda overloaded • Facilitation viewed as not neutral

12. After: • Create and disseminate meeting minutes (incl. an action-points matrix) • Ask meeting participants for feedback • Foster trust by following through on all commitments • Ensure that outstanding topics go on the agenda for future meetings

13. Meeting ManagementDuring the Meeting – Difficult Situations Last resort: delay or reschedule the meeting until the issue is resolved Meeting Management

14. Meeting Management Skills Relevance Why is this subject covered? Meeting management is a key soft skill that cluster staff need to have to coordinate a variety of actions and actors. How does this relate to my day to day tasks? Cluster staff routinely hold meetings with different partners (responding agencies, government, affected populations, donors), to coordinate assessment and analysis, strategy development, resource mobilization, and advocacy. Staff must ensure meetings are purposeful and productive. Meeting Management Skills