Chairing meetings

Automatically generated from the audio, so it may not be perfectly word-for-word.

Hi, welcome to the PTA podcast. My name is Yvonne, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. But I'm just one of thousands of volunteers up and down the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boost budgets, and I find it fascinating to talk to other volunteers about the different approaches they take. So please join me in this podcast to share information, generate ideas, debate issues, and celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. I feel like I need to apologise to you, my listener, for taking such a long time in between the episodes. But as I said last time, I'm really hoping to get a bit more consistent with this podcast. But yes, epic. I've got to episode 10. This is so exciting. Thank you for sticking with me if you have listened since episode 1. So I hope you're well. I hope you're having a good start to the academic year so far. Are you still waiting to have your AGM? Or maybe you have moved on to organising your first events of the year? Do let me know, email me on hello at ptapodcast.com. I have had my AGM now, which is what I talked about in episode 9. So in this episode, I'm going to update you on how that went and what my PTA's plans are for the next two terms. My AGM went very well. In fact, there was an excellent turnout, which really surprised me because I wasn't expecting it. So I don't know if you've listened to episode 9, which was all about my planning of the AGM. Um, and I think I mentioned that in previous years, so this is me, this was my sixth AGM as chair, and in previous years I have kind of billed the AGM as a celebration event to celebrate our achievements through the year, and I have baked a cake and taken a cake and taken some uh fizzy celebration drink like a prise a bottle of prosecco or like a fizzy elderflower, non-alcoholic elderflower or something, and I uh decided or I thought I decided not to do that this year because I mean at AGM last year there were only five of us there, and I guess I kind of felt that maybe I don't need to expect random people to turn up to the AGM because it has never happened before. Um but I cracked at the 11th hour and I decided, what if somebody comes and I haven't done a cake and it doesn't seem like a very fun AGM. So in the end I did bake a couple of cakes um and I bought some uh schlur, which is like a fizzy grape juice drink, um, and you can it's quite fun actually because you can get red, white, or rose, so it's kind of like offering wine. So I chose um a couple of bottles of red and a couple of bottles of white, and then when people arrived, I could ask them if they wanted red or white, and it was quite nice icebreaker for the meeting and and quite good fun. So I'm so pleased that I decided to do that and make the effort to do the cakes and everything because we had four extra parents come to our AGM, which as I say was unexpected but wonderful. We also had two teachers present, and I had a great turnout from my PTA committee. Um, so in total we had 12 people at the AGM, which was fantastic. Uh seeing as last year we only had five, so so it was really nice to have so many people there. But oh I do get so nervous about AGMs, I don't know why I get so nervous about them. Like I say, this was my sixth one, I've done it six times, and yet every AGM I get really nervous. Um, and then we had because we had other parents there that weren't used to our group, I suppose, um that also made me extra nervous. I think I get nervous because obviously I have to read out um my chair's report and talk about all the things that we've done. Um, and I think I get nervous because I want people to think we've done a good job and I feel nervous that maybe they don't. I don't know why I think that, because actually I think I've done quite a good job, so I don't know why I think other people won't, but anyway, that's what it's about, I think. Um so yes, so that was my sixth AGM as chair, so I'm now entering my seventh year as chair because I was happy to carry on being chair for another year, and like I said, we did have extra parents there, but none of them chose to join our committee. Uh I'm not quite sure why. Do you think that's a bit strange? Um, four parents came and none of them chose to join our committee. I don't know if that was a bit strange. I tried to make it not an awkward moment when we were doing the voting and asking who wanted to join the committee as a general member. Um, and I kind of looked away. I didn't want to look at them, I didn't want to want them to want to put them under pressure. But then afterwards I thought, well, none of them wanted to join. Uh one of them was our is our current chair of governors, so I didn't expect that he was going to join, but the others didn't, so slightly, slightly strange. Um anyway, at the end of the AGM we moved straight into our planning meeting, and everyone also stayed for that. So I did say um that if anyone wanted to leave because we're going to talk about planning, then they'd be more than welcome to leave, but nobody left, everybody stayed, and I don't know if that's because they all wanted to stay or if that was one of those awkward polite moments where nobody wanted to be the first person to get up and leave, and so everybody stayed. Not quite sure. Um, anyway, we uh planned the next two terms, so I'll just let you know what we have decided on. I won't give you any details just yet, uh, because there's a few things I could tell you about what we've decided on. So, this term, which is term one, we are going for simple non-uniform day on the last day of term and a secondhand uniform sale. So, one of the things I had on my list to do was to try and ramp up our non-uniform sales just to hold them more often, perhaps perhaps be more consistent with them. I felt maybe would um encourage parents to use it a bit more and to think about buying secondhand rather than buying new if if the sales are more often, so we're gonna try that this year, just to have them more often. Then um, term two, we are going for another non-uniform day. We've decided we think to have a non-uniform day every term. Um, we're going to have a Christmas stroke winter fair, and we are also going to organise whole school tea towels that we did um a couple of years ago just because that always really popular. We've obviously got new children in the school now that wouldn't have been on one, so it felt like the right time to do that fundraiser again. So, as I say, I'll give you more details on those in due course, and then we did sort of come up with some ideas for the rest of the year. We we basically talked around a lot of ideas and then parked the ones that we liked for later in the year and just kind of booked in um the ones for term one and term two because I sort of feel that's um a good way of managing the um tasks in my PTA team anyway. It kind of works quite well for us just to focus on what's coming next and not getting too far ahead because things can change sometimes, um, and you know, people's time is pressure, so I wouldn't want anyone to spend time organising something that then unfortunately we had to change or whatever. So uh so yes, I will update you on more details on our decisions on another podcast. After the meeting, both meetings finished, I went home to go to bed, uh, but my head was just spinning in all directions. I with hindsight I felt that the planning meeting was a really difficult meeting to chair. Most of the 12 people around the table had contributions to make, which was really great. Obviously, we do need people to speak up in meetings and give opinions and ideas and things, but I didn't really feel in control of the meeting most of the time because there was a lot of discussion. It needed to be a big discussion meeting, and it always is at the start of a new school year because we're thinking about the whole year, the next two terms, like the big two terms, so it felt a bit chaotic with loads of ideas being thrown in. Uh, obviously, I didn't really have I didn't have an agenda for that meeting that the agenda just had one item on it, I suppose, which is discuss and agree on um events and activities for the next two terms, and so to get through to making those decisions, we had to talk through a lot of ideas to you know see if they're feasible and some were discounted or pushed back to later in the year. But when I got home, I kept thinking and remembering discussions that that were started, and then I didn't remember that we actually finished them, and I was a bit worried that people might have come away from the meeting thinking that I hadn't listened properly or that I hadn't thought their ideas were good if I hadn't properly followed them through at the meeting. Um so my approach at my PTA meetings as the chair is that I do try and let people discuss um things that are thrown in and I let that discussion kind of run and I try and listen and try to get a feel for where the discussion is going in the group so that I can then add a summary or sort of interrupt um with a summary so we can try and move forward to a decision. Um, but sometimes that's just really hard, and I don't know if you've ever had this in meetings where a discussion starts on one thing and then somebody throws something in that that that links that discussion to a completely new topic, and then that then everybody is off talking about the new topic when the original item was kind of left hanging, and um it just felt like it was a bit a bit like that, a bit like a ship in a really rough sea kind of being bashed around by loads of waves. Um so it was uh difficult as the chair to kind of keep hand of what was going on. Um, and I was also really conscious about sticking to our finish time of 9.30 so that everybody could go home. Um and uh I don't know, I just we needed to have made our decisions by 9.30, so I was kind of watching the clock and trying to do these summaries, and we did we did get there eventually, we did you know make our plan for term one and term two, but I did not feel comfortable chairing that meeting. I don't think I did a very good job. So afterwards, um I thought maybe I should just get some tips on chairing a meeting, as I feel to be a good chair in a meeting it's it's kind of like a special skill or or an art or something. Um and I just wanted to see if there's anything else I could do to make it easier, basically make it easier for myself and therefore my team, so that the key decisions are really pulled out and highlighted, and we have very clear direction. So I have done a bit of research on the internet and I have cherry-picked some tips from across the internet, which I think will be uh relevant to PTA meetings. Of course, PTA meetings are you know slightly different from your average business meeting because all the participants, most of the participants, are volunteers in a PTA meeting, and that does create, I think, a different dynamic to the meeting, certainly a different it sort of adds restrictions in of what you can and cannot do because the people in the meeting are not working for the PTA company, if that makes sense, they're all volunteers, so I do think that does change things, but hopefully the things I found which I'm going to share with you will be useful to you if you're a chair, even if you've been a chair for a long time like me. I think there's always something that we can learn or do differently. And if you're a new chair, maybe you've just had an ADM and you've just been elected the chair, and you might be feeling a bit daunted about chairing meetings because it could be something you've never done before, then I do want to reassure you that um that you will be fine, and uh most of the time when you're chairing a meeting, you can remember that everybody else who is in that meeting is feeling glad that they are not chairing it, and it's you that's chairing it. So I always try and remember that as well that everybody else appreciates me doing it so they don't have to do it, and that kind of makes you feel a bit better in case it's not going according to my plan or something. Uh, right, so I will dig out my um tips that I found and we can think about them. So, what I've done with these tips is I have grouped them into three um categories. The first one is we're going to talk about what to do before the meeting. The second one is just to clarify what the chair's role is, and the third one is going to cover what um I don't know how to phrase this one, um, what happens during the meeting, I suppose, or how you can help the meeting or something like that. Anyway, it will all become clear when I start talking about it, I'm sure. Okay, so let's kick off with what you need to do before the meeting. So generally when you hold a meeting you write an agenda which will keep the meeting on track and also make sure you discuss everything you need to discuss. It's basically a list of all the things that meeting needs to do. But the agenda can be quite crucial to how well your meeting goes. So one of the tips is to plan the agenda of your meeting really carefully and consider the order of the various items on it. So, for example, you could choose to put any big topics or possibly contentious decisions at the top of the agenda so they're dealt with at the towards the start of the meeting, or you might prefer to go through the general updates first before getting on to the kind of meaty topics. So that's something that you can have a think about. Um, as the chair, obviously, you need to know what all the agenda items are and who is taking the lead on them. So there might be an agenda item that, for example, the treasurer is going to take the lead on, or there might be an agenda item that the um class rep is going to take the lead on. So just be clear in your own mind uh which ones you're leading and perhaps which ones other people are leading. If there are going to be contentious issues uh raised at the meeting on the agenda, have a think about how you might deal with that. Um and also be familiar with any documents or reports in advance. So I know some when people send out things for meetings, not many people read the documents or reports and things. We don't have um documents or reports at our PTA meetings. Maybe the treasurer might do some sort of financial summary every once in a while, but that's kind of it, that's all we've got. Uh, but yours might be different to mine, and being familiar with all the items on the agenda really helps the meeting run more smoothly. So now that might seem a bit daunting, especially if you haven't um chaired a meeting before, but as the chair of your PTA, you will already be very familiar with most of the items on the agenda. So your preparation time may be minimal because it's already in your head, for example. So don't worry too much. But yes, planning the agenda carefully can help your meeting run more smoothly. So that was a really good tip. Um, something else which I um picked up on is the location of the meeting, and there were some interesting things here. So if your meeting is somewhere other than in a meeting room, think about how to create the right seating for the meeting. So obviously, in a meeting, it's it's it's best if everybody can gather round in a kind of circle shape or oval shape or something, so that you know it feels very equal and everybody feels included. Um, but if you're at a long table, um for example, if you're in a restaurant or something, and you're at a long table, then um this website I read had the tip of placing the chair in the middle of one of the long sides of the long table instead of at one end of the table, which thinking about it now kind of makes sense because you're more in the middle of the group rather than stuck at one end. I did run an AGM a couple of years ago that we had as a parent social where I was at one end of a very long table and it was actually really difficult because I could barely see the people at the far end of the table, I couldn't really hear what they were saying. Um, there were a lot of people there that I didn't know, I didn't know their names, so it actually made it quite difficult. So I think that's a really good tip. If you have a long table, put yourself in the middle of the table so you can easily see everybody and everybody can see you, and and that's um and you can hear what they're saying as well. And if you are going to a new venue, it could be that you're uh got a new room at school or you're in a pub or whatever, I don't know. Um then arrive early so that you can sort out any seating problems before everybody gets there, um, and always aim to start the meeting on time. So this is something I always try and do. I always try and start on time. Uh, but you know, it's really difficult because sometimes people come in just a few minutes late, and especially if it's a key person at your meeting, sometimes you just want to hang on and wait till they've arrived. But um if you can start on time, do start on time. So now that your meeting has started, what is the role that you need to play in chairing this meeting? Well, the chair's role is basically to lead the discussion and steer the committee or the volunteers towards the decisions, going through all the items on the agenda. So um it's important to be authoritative but not dictatorial and respect that everybody is equal in the meeting and everybody is a volunteer. I think we've already talked about that. Um, so you know it's important to be warm and friendly and welcoming, especially if there's people there that haven't been before or they're not so familiar with your group. Um the chair the chair's role is not to necessarily give a lot of opinion from you as a person. Obviously, you can chip in with your opinion because your opinion is just as valid as everybody else's at the meeting. But but your role is to really encourage the entire group, um which includes yourself, to move through these items. So your role is definitely to keep the meeting on track according to the agenda, to keep it succinct so that everybody leaves it on time and to keep the meeting focused. I should probably also mention that I'm assuming on your PTA that you have a secretary role, and the sec part of the secretary's role is to take the minutes of a meeting. If you don't have a secretary, um then it's really important that you get somebody else in that meeting to take the minutes or to take notes or even just to note down when a decision is reached, because believe me, if you were chairing a meeting, you cannot also at the same time take any notes. And I know this because I have tried it, then I've got home to this sort of page of notes that are all half finished sentences, and it's just terrible, awful minutes, terrible, terrible. So even if you don't have a secretary or if your secretary can't make the meeting, ask for a volunteer from the group say, Look, I can't take the minutes as well because I'm chairing the meeting. Can I please have a volunteer? So that is really important to get somebody else apart from you to take the note. And so now the meeting has started and you are running the meeting, you're clear about your role of guiding the committee through the agenda, but what how does that actually work in practice? So, what needs to happen is that you as the chair need to spend a lot of time listening to how the discussion is going. You can introduce the agenda items one by one, then let the discussion um roll on, and every so often during the discussion, just um issue a few summaries so that people understand what they've got to, and if it hasn't quite resolved itself, then more discussion can take place until you arrive at a point of decision, um, and then you need to summarize the decision that that everybody has got to for that particular agenda item. That is also really helpful for the person taking the minutes so they can be very clear what the decision is. But when you are chairing a meeting, um this is where your kind of skill or or the art of chairing a meeting comes into play because I think it's really important, especially in a meeting with volunteers for a volunteer organisation, to try and encourage everybody to participate in the meeting and to um feel that they can voice their opinion because everybody's opinion is um valid and important. So uh that that part of the uh role I find quite difficult because you're trying to follow the discussion, you're trying to listen to the discussion, you're trying to get a feel for where it's heading, but you're also trying to look around the room and sort of think, oh, I wonder if that person is actually waiting to say something, but um, or this person's been talking for a long time, I need to see if there's any other views out there. So it's actually quite a difficult thing to do. Anyway, there are some tips, so here we go. So if you have um a very chatty uh committee, then and you know, people are sort of jumping in um before other people have finished, then um you could encourage people to put their hands up if they want to say something, and then you can control who speaks next. Um it is really important not to let people interrupt others when they're speaking, it's you know very impolite and rude anyway. Um, but if people are interrupting, then I think as chair it's important that you politely just ask them to wait until the other person's finished. And in my experience, you only have to do this a couple of times before before the uh entire meeting understands and then they don't do it anymore. So um, so I have had to do that in the past in meetings, and and it's been absolutely fine. Obviously, if sometimes people get very passionate about things and perhaps they don't realise that they're interrupting because they're so keen to share their idea. Um, but obviously, once they do know, then then they're normally absolutely fine about it. Um obviously, some people do find it hard to speak up in meetings, they feel intimidated, um, even if it's just a very small group. So it's great to encourage them by saying something like, Is there anyone who hasn't talked yet who would like to say something about this agenda item? and that kind of gives them an invitation to speak if they were holding back and not sure how to you know interject their idea. So I I really like that tip. Um, another way of doing that is to again this would probably only work if you had a small group, but you could literally go around the room and ask individual people do you want to contribute anything? Is there anything you want to say? Do you agree with this? Whatever. Um so that is another way of making sure all the participants do get to say what they think and feel about the uh suggestion. So I did I did also like that tip. Um so yes, as I've said, regularly summarise the discussion so everybody understands where you've got to. Um there was a tip here if um if somebody is being a bit too talkative, um obviously in a very kind way, try and get other members involved by asking their thoughts and opinions directly and saying to the person who is being very talkative, perhaps it would be really good to hear what other people think. Um I'm not quite sure how you can phrase that in a very polite way, but um I have yeah, I have had you know people in the past who have dominated the meeting and then others feel like they cannot contribute, or sometimes when you have a person who is very dominant in a meeting, it feels like they're the ones making all the decisions. But as chair, it's important for you to recognise that they're just one person and other people's opinions need to come um on board, so you just need to kind of try and make space. I suppose it's about making space for somebody else to share their views as well. Um I think I might have already said this, but it's really good to make sure the meeting runs to time. So for my PTA meetings now, I do make sure we have a finish time, and I do my very best to stick to that finish time, especially because people have got to go home or you know they want to go to bed or have an evening at home or whatever. So I do try and make it clear how long I'm hoping the meeting will last for. Um this is actually quite a useful thing to do to manage your meeting. So if you have a cutoff point, then you can look at your agenda and think, right, what are the priorities for this meeting? I need to make sure these items are given top priorities so we can make decisions on those because that's very important. Um, you could um also allow some time limits for individual agenda items if you wanted to. Um, there was an agenda item I had where we had to discuss something, but I didn't want it to dominate the whole meeting, and I felt it could have dominated the meeting, so I said, right, we're gonna talk about this, we're just gonna discuss this for about 10-15 minutes and then and then we're going to move on. And that actually um that worked really well for us. So you could allocate time for each agenda item or maybe just the big agenda items, just so you can keep the meeting moving. Um, the other thing to say is that as I'm sure you know, many people are put off joining committees because they might have been to long rambling meetings or meetings for meeting's sake, you know, where where perhaps the meeting was not necessary. Um, but I know that you know how valuable a volunteer's time is because you're a volunteer too. And so when you are chairing a meeting for a PTA, um do try and make sure that you're focused on the agenda, everybody's there to just work through these items and then you know, by all means have some social time afterwards, but try and just get those decisions banked and in the minutes during the meeting, so the meeting is nice and focused, and nobody feels like it's wasting their time to be there because that's you know how people get put off joining um committees and volunteering them. We all know how hard it is to find new volunteers, so we definitely don't want that to happen. So, those are all the tips I found on the internet. I think some of them are really useful. Um, so I think the key points from the things that I found. Firstly, as the chair, you need to be organized and prepared. So being organized means you've read through the agenda, you know what's happening, you know who's talking about all the different things, and you've prepared, you know where the meeting's going to be, you've sent the agenda out, you're you're fully ready for the meeting. Then is to just be mindful that of your role at the meeting as chair, which is to guide the volunteers through the agenda items, um, making collective decisions as you go along, and also making sure everyone feels listened to or heard, which basically means that they feel valued, a valued part of the team, and that's really important that you can show that as chair, and then finally making sure that the meeting finishes on time and is focused so that everybody feels that they have um done a really good job in contributing to all those decisions and it hasn't kind of gone over and people are getting bored and that sort of thing. So, yeah, keep it focused, keep it succinct, like I said, um, get those decisions down on paper, and then you can all move forward with the actions and the event planning and the activities. Now I realise that all these tips may sound rather overwhelming if you're just starting out as a chair or if you already feel uncomfortable chairing a meeting. So I just want to take a moment to say that I understand and you are not alone with this. Many PTA volunteers will feel the same, and I can guarantee that most of the people sitting in the circle at your meeting will feel so relieved that someone else, i.e. you, is chairing the meeting so that they don't have to. Um, if you are feeling really overwhelmed, then I can reassure you that you're already doing a fantastic job. You're stepping out of your comfort zone and into a role which requires you to do something new, and I also want to reassure you that it does get easier. Um, I know from what I've just said in this episode about my recent ADM that it might sound like it doesn't get easier, but honestly, it does. I have noticed that I'm much better at uh giving the ongoing summaries throughout my meetings and the discussions that my group has, and I'm much better at keeping focused on the agenda. Um, I'm certainly not afraid anymore of cutting short a discussion if it's you know wandered off into a social chat because I know how important it is to reach the end of the meeting with the decisions that we needed to make. And I know that because um I have let meetings wander off into social chats and then reach the end of the meeting, it's got too late, we've had to go home, and then the next few days thought, oh my goodness, we didn't make any decisions about this, that, and the other. We're gonna have to have another meeting, which then involves you know asking people when they're available and yada yada. So, um, yeah, from experience, your um your skills will build, really, they will. And my best advice to you if you are new to chairing meetings is to make sure your agenda has the right items on it, which will give you the outcomes that you want, and then during the meeting, following your agenda step by step is all you need to do, really. Um, it will help you through the meeting, it will be your guide. So, really trust and have faith in your agenda. But if you accidentally lose track of where you are, just be honest with your group. After all, they are volunteers just like you, and just ask if someone could summarise where the discussion has got to, and then you can kind of get back on track. And remember that you can use voting to get clear decisions made too. If it all feels a bit waffly, you can just pause the discussion and say, you know, I'm not quite clear what everyone thinks, so let's just take a vote and then you know, people raise their hands, um, and then you can see clearly if everyone's in agreement or not. So that is really helpful. But honestly, just go for it. You'll probably be loads better than you were expecting, and let me know how you get on if you're chairing your first meeting soon or your first couple of meetings. Let me know how it went, let me know if you learnt anything, and I'm sure there are people out there listening to this podcast who would really appreciate some tips and tricks from people who are just starting out chairing their meetings. So, yes, do get in touch, I'd be very happy to hear from you. I used a variety of websites to find some chairing tips, and I'm going to put the three most helpful links in my show notes for this uh podcast episode, but I just wanted to give a shout out to the PTA Plus website here in the UK, which has loads of free advice about all sorts of things connected to PTAs, including how to run a PTA. Um this website is normally my first port of call to get tips and um fundraising ideas, but once you actually go into it, you'll find that there's just so many articles about things that you might never even have thought of before. Um, so it starts off with um tips on how to sort of set your PTA up, how to plan your fundraising year, it goes on with advice about holding your AGM, then talks about all sorts of things like using QR codes, raising your PTA's profile, a school garden, um planning um how to make your PTA greener, all sorts of different things, legal things, volunteer things, fundraising things, anything you could think of, it's on that website. So I'd really encourage you to have a look. Um the website address is www.pta.co.uk, and I'm pretty sure you can access that from wherever you are in the world. Um, so I'm sure that my listeners who are abroad might also find some really useful information in there. So yeah, go and have a look. I hope that some of those tips are useful to you in your PTA meetings. Maybe you have some other tips or tricks that help you in your meetings for your PTA. I would love to hear about them and maybe share them with the other listeners on this podcast. Why not drop me a line using hello at ptapodcast.com and let me know your thoughts. Thank you so much for listening today to my 10th episode. Woohoo! And uh I will speak to you soon. And it would be great if you could leave me a rating or review or wherever you um get your podcast from, and I look forward to chatting with you next time. Bye!