Meetings and their structure are very important for group projects. Regular meetings enable all individuals to participate in the sharing of information, distribution of authority, the sharing of responsibility, and the exercise of power and decision making involved in the group activity. The time and place for each meeting should be decided by all, and made known to those members absent.
Meetings do not guarantee that power will be shared. Elite groups and people with strong personalities may be present. Personal politics, sex roles and power relationships need to be acknowledged and discussed, and sometimes confronted and changed by the individual and group.
Once the power dynamics in the group and in the meeting are out in the open, structures and techniques to regulate and share power can be formulated. These techniques may include giving some type of emphasis to the less assertive people in the group.
One useful technique which can be easily used when making a decision is to quickly go around the group eliciting from each person what they think. This technique can serve to empower those individuals less assertive, and for the group enhance the diversity of ideas and possible solutions to problems. This technique may be used two or three times in formulating a decision, or as much as is needed.
If Consensus decision making is being used by the group, then it is vital that the views of all are made known while a decision is being formulated.
As a relatively shy and quiet person, other members of a collective got infuriated when they reached a decision among themselves but found I disagreed and was blocking consensus. This wasted time and resulted in feelings of frustration by myself and anger by those present who were more articulate and assertive.
The problem was a group responsibility, in not periodically checking with everybody through every stage of the decision making. It was also recognised that I needed to be more assertive in participating in discussion, and others needed to encourage my participation in all aspects of decision making.
Using a consultative technique makes the small group more efficient.
My household has adopted as part of our consensus definition that any proposals put to the meeting must be checked for agreement by all members. That is, we must all indicate a clear yes or no before proceeding. This helps to avoids ambiguous decisions and the meeting making decisions by default.
Several formal roles or functions can be delegated to individuals for the efficient functioning of a meeting. These roles ideally should rotate among all members to share the skills and responsibility in the group. Sometimes these roles may be handled by the group as a whole rather than delegated to an individual. These formal roles may include: facilitator, minutes keeper, timekeeper, vibes watcher.
Facilitative functions which may be employed in a meeting are described in Resource Manual for a Living Revolution and in Building United Judgment. A Handbook for Consensus Decision Making. These functions may be employed by the facilitator and other members of a group, and may be employed to different effect according to the abilities each person has. If your group has a timekeeper or vibes watcher, specific functions below will be performed by these roles.
The role of a facilitator is to ensure the meeting stays focused on the issues being discussed, and discussion runs smoothly. The facilitator may also mediate to resolve conflicts, provide summaries for long discussions, check for agreement, be aware of power imbalances, and encouraging the participation of all members in discussions.
The facilitator should be attentive to the group and should not involve themselves in the topic being discussed. If the facilitator has strong feelings on a subject, the facilitator should step out of their role temporarily or pass it onto someone else.
The minutes keeper is delegated with writing an accurate record of the meeting - which may include only the decisions taken, major discussion points, or much of the discussion as well, depending upon the guidelines set by the group. Minutes give the meeting continuity from the past into the future. This role is particularly important for more permanent collective projects.
Time Keeping enables the group to evaluate its progress through the meeting, and further ensures discussion is kept to the relevant point.
To give direction to the timekeeper the group should evaluate at the start of a meeting how much there is to be discussed or decided. Decide a finishing time, and then allocate times to each item, and prioritise the items. When an item uses its allocated time, the facilitator can ask the meeting whether it is worthwhile to extend time on the item or not.
Monitoring the emotions and energy of the group is sometimes called vibes watching. Often this role can be non-delegated and performed by the group as a whole. When there are strong emotions affecting the process of the group, monitoring the vibes entails bringing this fact to the attention of the group.
Several things might then be done by the group including: calling a short break in the meeting; perhaps playing a cooperative game or some other re- energising and trust building group activity; and/or a discussion of the emotions or tensions in the group and how they are affecting the process of the discussion or meeting. It can be useful to deal with emotions or tensions affecting the group process as they occur, thus clearing the air and allowing the remainder of the meeting to run more smoothly.