Meetings in the corporate world suck. They take too long, they don’t have an agenda. Too many people with no interest in the meeting attend because they were invited. If the thought of a ham radio meeting was like corporate meetings, no one would join your club. Which is commentary, of course, on corporate meetings…

But, membership meetings for ham radio shouldn’t be like corporate meetings. In fact, they can be stellar.

Meeting Objectives

• Meetings are social. Hey, we joined the club to be with other hams. So the social aspect of the meeting is critical.
• Meetings are places to learn about the hobby. If you were thinking of getting into a new area of ham radio like six meters, where would you find someone who is already in that part of your hobby? Your club, of course.
• Meetings expose you to all facets of the hobby. If you have great club programs, your members will learn about different parts of the hobby even though they may not participate in that part of the hobby. I’d never do moon bounce — but what a cool thing to learn about for a program!

Agenda

Here’s my agenda for a ham radio membership meeting:

1. 6:30 PM Have the meeting room open a good half hour before the start of the meeting. (socialize)
2. 7:00 PM Start the “business” meeting promptly. If you are late, you miss it.
3. The business meeting lasts 20-minutes max. Yes, 20-minutes max. In two years of running ham radio meetings, I only missed this objective 3-times over almost 48 meetings.
4. The business meeting consists of treasurer’s report, new members, DX report, Activity report, contest report, and introduction to the program for the night.
5. After the business meeting, there is a break before the program starts. (socialize)
6. 7:45 PM The program starts. (learn)
7. 9:00 PM If your program speaker is still talking, he or she gets thanked by the President and booted off the program, done or not.
8. 9:00 PM Start of the meeting-after-the meeting. (socialize)

Here’s the rule: the membership meeting isn’t about the meeting. It is about socializing with your fellow hams and learning about the hobby.

What do you think?

Scot, K9JY

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