Throughout my journey as "The President" I have been confronted by the reason why we should have a weekly meeting by different members. Why do we need a venue? Why do we need a meal? Why do we need structure in the agenda?
We have all been in meetings that don’t seem to have any purpose. You attend because you were invited and felt you should go but find the purpose of the meeting isn’t clear and the meeting itself doesn’t create any meaningful outcomes.
I have looked at other clubs that have wandered down different meeting paths to create meetings with meaningful outcomes. The project meeting is one often talked about as the best type of meeting. It is kind of like a Facebook story where you have to paint a super bright picture of how good it looks but in reality, it isn't a true representation. Someone or a group of people need to create that perfect project meeting and while I would love to be that person who goes to help out, there is still a lot of background work to keep that model alive.
In my own personal experience across a number of different organisations, the meeting is the common pivot point where you (as an individual) can start, opt-in, opt-out, join, contribute to, be asked to join, develop or progress a project. The meeting focuses the person's attention on the organisation, its expectations and a project's outcome. Rotary is a very dynamic model and can do a vast array of projects.
If the club is purely a social club, who needs a meeting! Just show up to whatever you feel like or not at all.
If the club is vibrant and well populated with motivated members that may have several projects on the go then a more frequent meeting schedule is required.
If many of the Club members are still working, another meeting in a sea of meetings isn't going to cut it. A different type of meeting is called for with an element of unwinding to switch from high-pressure professional to focused and resourceful volunteer. A weekly meeting over a meal allows for the unwinding stage followed by the engaging stage. A quiet and private space is also required to allow effective communication. If the club has four members, a booth at the local diner would work. Our Club won't fit into a booth (although some nights, it could!)
When I visited the Rotary Club of Guernsey in 2005 that had a pre-dinner meeting, I did feel their style of meeting missed something. England was playing Australia in cricket at the time (and at the meeting on the pub tv) and we were doing ok, so I did have to keep my head low. What I really mean is the unwind factor. Fortunately, I got an invite from the Chief Public Health Officer for dinner at his place and that's where I got the real insight into Rotary at that Club and the Island too.
Getting in the mood to engage, contribute, move ahead, get social, be yourself, value add to the club. As individuals, we are only building bricks, together we can build something. The meeting is the mortar that binds us together.
I will go one step further on this topic to say that I love to hear what each person has been doing over their week. Sure some weeks are boring as for some people, but most weeks there is always something new. I love our venue, I enjoy my dinner (I was brought up to be grateful for anything, even Magic with Leftovers) and our club has some fascinating members. I hope that we all can enjoy and appreciate the value and strength we have in our club from our active members, our venue, our program and our projects.
Rotary is only as good as the efforts we all put into it under the conditions the meeting structures allow. Engaging meetings don’t feel like meetings. They draw you into the topic and encourage healthy participation.
