home > publications & resources > knowledge center > article index

Sometimes role playing is the most effective way to understand the best response for specific situations. In this article Robert A. Hall, CAE, outlines several situations that staff may encounter when facilitating a meeting a volunteer leader is chairing and the best possible response, a response that’s bad but not disastrous, and the disastrous response.

While the volunteer chair is responsible for the flow and success of the meeting, the staff liaison can often help insure that the members feel the meeting was productive. Much will depend, of course, on the chair’s personality, experience and operating style, and on the staff member’s comfort level with intervening in the process. Here are some situations where you may be able to make a difference, with possible staff member responses or actions. Note that the responses are guidelines towards managing the situation, NOT a script to be read.

1. Situation: The president has appointed a new chair for a committee you support.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “Hello, Dr. Smith. Congratulations on being appointed education chair. As you may know, I’m the staff liaison for that committee. I wanted to get an understanding of how I can help you make the meetings more focused and productive for the volunteers, so your term as chair will be as successful as you want it to be.”

Bad: “Don’t worry about being named Education Chair, Dr. Smith. The staff runs everything around here, so I’ll take care of the meetings for you.”

Ugly: “It’s 8:01, and this conference call was supposed to start at 8:00, so I guess we’re all here. Does anyone know who the chair is?”

2. Situation: It’s time to prepare an agenda for the committee conference call.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “Hi, Dr. Smith. As you know, we have an education committee conference call in two weeks. I’m working on a draft agenda for your approval, and want to know if there are specific topics you want to include. To save volunteers’ time, I suggest we include routine items on a consent agenda, and information items in written reports, so members will spend their time discussing the important action items.”

Bad: “Dear Dr. Smith and Education Committee Members. Attached to this e-mail please find the agenda I’ve prepared for tonight’s conference call.”

Ugly: “I guess we’re all here. What does everyone want to talk about?”

3. Situation: A committee member has proposed a major new project, which is not in the strategic plan or the budget, and which has legal implications for the association.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “This is an interesting idea. I suggest we appoint a subcommittee to research the implications, including the legal ramifications, and if our research is positive, to propose it be included in the strategic plan and the budget. We want to be sure we bring all the players into the loop in a timely manner, so they can make a decision. If we surprise everyone with this at the last minute, or bypass the planning and the budgeting process, I think the leadership won’t give it full consideration.”

Bad: “That’s a stupid idea. There’s no money to do it and it’s not in the plan.”

Ugly: “Great idea. I’ll get on it in the morning!”

4. Situation: Dr. Jones is rambling on about his pet project, far off the topic of the agenda.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “This is an important conversation we need to have sometime, but right now I suggest we need to focus on the agenda.”

Bad: “You’re out of order, Dr. Jones, that’s not on the agenda!”

Ugly: “I’m signing off. Someone call me when Dr. Jones stops blathering.”

5. Situation: Committee members are starting to repeat themselves, for the third time.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “It sounds like we may have a consensus and are ready to move to a vote.”

Bad: “We’re starting to repeat ourselves here!”

Ugly: “For Heaven’s sake, will someone call the question before I scream?”

6. Situation: Dr. Harris’s comments indicate he has not read the material, which was sent out ten days before the meeting.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “I’m sorry, Dr. Harris. It sounds like we left that material, which should have been under Tab B, out of your packet. I can e-mail it to you in the morning, and I’ll summarize if the committee wishes. Did everyone else get that information?”

Bad: “That information was in your packet, Dr. Harris, under Tab B. We can’t function if members won’t read their material.”

Ugly: “Dr. Harris, would you like me to call and read the material to you at bedtime before the next call?”

7. Situation: A committee member has gotten lost in convoluted parliamentary procedure.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: “Committees operate pretty informally, and you don’t have to worry about arcane points of parliamentary procedure. If no one objects, let’s just start over with a new motion to do what you want.”

Bad: “You CANNOT call the question on the amendment to the main motion, until the subsidiary motion to the amendment has been acted on.”

Ugly: “Under Robert’s Rules of Order, I can have you shot!”

8. Situation: A Dr. Edwards insists on making long verbal reports on everything he’s accomplished since the last meeting.

Possible Staff Response:

Good: Get the chair’s agreement that reports be submitted in writing, and placed in an information agenda after the action items. Distribute this “suggestion” to the committee members with a call for reports well in advance. Have the chair say, when the information agenda is taken up, “You’ve all had a chance to read the written reports, and I thank each of those who submitted them in writing, as it saves all of us time at these meetings. Does anyone have anything to add that isn’t in the written reports?”

Bad: Let Dr. Edward’s turn off volunteers by monopolizing meeting time with verbal repetitions of his reports.

Ugly: “Dr. Edward’s has told us what he’s been up to since the last meeting. Let’s go around the table and find out if the rest of you have been doing your jobs.”

9. Situation: The conference call was supposed to end at 9:00 pm, and it’s now 11:15 pm.

Good: “We’re all pretty fried. I suggest the chair identify anything that can’t wait to take action now, and we postpone the rest of the agenda for the next meeting.”

Bad: “You know, a motion to adjourn is always in order!”

Ugly: “Snooooore.”

*****

Robert A. Hall, CAE, Executive Director of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (www.aacd.com) has over 22 years as an association border collie. Before that he served five terms in the Massachusetts state senate. He can be reached at bobh@aacd.com.

Top ^
To Articles Index
To ASAE home