Re-energize your meetings, Re-activate your members

Many of us have attended conferences, institutes, and seminars facilitated by our national headquarters, governing bodies, or other parent organizations. We have sat through talks about making positive change, living with integrity, developing ourselves through adherence to our mission statements and through service to others.

We have left these sessions extremely motivated and excited to make an impact on our campuses. And many of us have come back and gotten heavily involved in trying to make good things happen. Some have succeeded, and some have not. Few, however, have come back and successfully relayed this same excitement and inspired this same motivation in others. How is this possible? "These guys are so apathetic!" you may have told yourself--but this isn't exactly the case.

What happens in your chapter meetings?

Are they interesting? Do you go through your regular updates, maybe vote on a new by-law or two, announce upcoming events? Then do you have the occasional guest come in to speak about an important topic, mostly because it fulfills a university-imposed requirement? Finally, do you tell some funny stories about one another, say some special secret words, and call it a day?

Does this leave you feeling charged to be the best member of your organization you can be?

Sadly, I rarely leave this type of meeting feeling anything other than sleepy--or frustrated. Maybe it's just because I'm now one of the "old guys."

Personally, I doubt that when William Alexander, one of the founders of Pi Kappa Alpha, ever left his chapter room in 1868 he thought to himself, "Gee, that wasn't worth putting off studying for my psych midterm. I could have totally just read everything they just said in an email." Other than the fact that email wouldn't be popular for another hundred-and-twenty years or so, there were several reasons for him never to feel this way. Exactly ZERO of these reasons were the fact that their meetings were uninteresting, unentertaining, or uninspiring.

So, let's combine these anecdotes of the conference-going member and the chapter-going founding father. What do they both have in common? If you answered, "Individuals who left organized gatherings with a renewed excitement, sense of purpose, and understanding of what needs to be done," then you would be correct!

Now, it's up to you to decide what this can mean in terms of format, but take this as an open challenge to make your organization's regular meetings more engaging, inspiring, and fun. How will you guarantee that every member walks out of every meeting more informed, more confident, and more effective than when he or she walked in? Answer this--implement this--and you will not be disappointed.