Running Local Meetings with Volunteers - Presidents Part

One of the toughest gigs in modern leadership is the local club or civic function. Civic clubs are lifeblood to America, they have always been, our original dissident forefathers met in civic clubs, were civic minded, and believed in the core values which such clubs bring forth. It is a tough gig because it involves getting people to accomplish difficult tasks with no monetary incentive.

It is a tough gig because it means getting people excited about service to others for others sake, and we all know how hard that can be. It's a tough gig, but you, are up to it, that's why you will read this and take it in, and then if you like, communicate back about these directions. Nothing is ever set in stone when it comes to such leadership, thankfully, each leader brings to the mix so much of whom they are, but the basics are standard in some sense, and these thoughts are a good start.

1) At meetings it is really cool to know how long you want it to run, give three to five minutes for each portion of the agenda...and then move on...if a subject can't be discussed out in three to five minutes...it needs to be tabled until the next get together.

2) Determine when you want the meeting to end - and end it - meetings are a way to transmit information that wasn't transmitted effectively enough to begin with. The most effective means of transmitting a message about substance in planning is through e-mail, lacking that, through an announced bulletin, lacking that, through a public venue like the phone.

3) Set direction for your club - in every meeting you are the person who they will say did or did not do what needed to be done. The President can't run the organization, at all, you must depend upon the power broker volunteers to do that, but, the President is the one who will catch the blame if things don't go just "splendidly." So the answer is, know precisely what your vision for growth is- once you have a vision for growth- only then can you truly accomplish it.

4) Take all suggestions in - don't reach determining directional decisions in the meeting - this is the hard one, but all great leaders know how to put issues over until the next meeting, and here is why (!)- folks change their minds; come up with new ideas, and basically, a meeting just surfaces what folks are considering.

5) Seek the counsel of leaders who are leading, include them in the game, make sure that they are a mix of new and old - keep the old power broker volunteers for what they do best, broker power deals in the organization, and learn how to have them do what you need to have them do to make the group grow. Align the new power broker volunteers with the old by melding them into groupings which function together- and then, feed the new power brokers the ideas for moving your club ahead.

6) Make use of the technology at hand - when was the last PSA (Public Service Announcement) for the club here in town? Who put it out? How effectively are the PSA systems in place, what are they, who runs them, when are they implemented and where (media use) are the PSA's focused? Make use of the technology in local settings; make use of the system, but not in the same old boring way (!)- fresh concepts must come forth or the old concepts will never become better!
Challenge the systematic elimination of new directions in PR - always - because that is the edge of what growth will amount to. Never allow the same ol' methods to take over the public's awareness and perception of your club.