From the moment I joined Kappa Kappa Psi as a membership candidate in Spring 2010, through the last semester of my junior year in Spring 2012, many things within my chapter had changed. We were a new and young chapter, discovering many things that both worked and didn't We've planned marching band and indoor drumline competitions, created new officer positions and gotten rid of old ones, and we've had our share of internal drama and problems. However, throughout all of this, one thing stayed consistent – our weekly chapter meetings which would commonly last for three to five hours.
When I was elected President of the chapter, to begin serving in Fall 2012, I knew that we could not continue to have such long meetings. With 33 active and conditional brothers, tensions would start to rise during chapter meetings and often people would get upset simply due to the length of the meeting.
Since the beginning of my term as President, the Mu Nu Chapter has had very efficient meetings, with the longest being three hours long – and that was the meeting we were expecting to take at least four hours! There are a few major ways we've cut down on the meeting length without restricting brothers’ speaking rights.
1.
Treating Chapter Meetings as business meetings: In past years, Brothers would often treat chapter meetings as social meetings and would discuss both important things (such as possible fundraiser ideas and service project ideas) and well as irrelevant things (such as funny stories that happened to people recently) in chapter meetings. By approaching chapter meetings like business meetings, Brothers are more focused on what actually needs to be discussed and understand which matters can wait until the meeting is adjourned and brothers dismissed.
2.
Extensive use of Committees: In the Mu Nu Chapter, there are currently eleven standard or special committees that each meet or communicate on a regular basis, including Service, Membership, Fundraising, Social, Correspondence, Music, Website, Executive Board, Constitution, Ritual and Step. At the beginning of the semester, each Brother is assigned to one of the first seven committees, and membership on the last three is open to anyone - regardless of committee assignment. The Executive Board is made up of Chapter Officers and Committee Heads. If a topic of issue can be discussed in a certain committee, then the topic is almost always discussed there. This saves the whole Chapter debating back and forth for extended periods of time on things that can often be discussed and figured out in a smaller group setting and then brought up to the Chapter with a finalized plan and details.
3.
Do not be afraid to utilize Special Committees: If a discussion in a chapter meeting begins to take too long when hashing out details, or if the discussion starts becoming unproductive, the discussion usually gets tabled to a committee. If there is not a committee that would clearly be in charge of it, then a special committee is created to deal with it. By utilizing these special committees, much of the Chapter’s time is saved from long, unproductive discussions.
4.
An officer position of Parliamentarian: In our Chapter, meetings are governed by Robert’s Rules of Order. However, not everyone in the Chapter knows all of the rules. By having a Parliamentarian, there is one Officer observing the Chapter meeting from a parliamentary perspective. It is this Officer’s duty to make sure that all rules are followed and enforced, and then bring discussions back to an appropriate topic if necessary.
5.
Having the Executive Board meet weekly: If the Executive Board meets every week, then every member of the Executive Board can stay up to date with what is going on each committee and the whole Chapter. This avoids some committee heads or Officers being out of the loop on certain topics. Additionally, discussions about more controversial topics in an Executive Board meeting can give the Officers an idea of how the chapter will react to such topics being brought up in chapter meetings. One important note is that the Executive Board does not need to agree about everything brought up in their meeting.
6. Finding an appropriate seating arrangement for Chapter meetings: Our chapter has tried a few different seating arrangements over the years. We have tried having our Executive Board sit facing the Chapter, and we’ve tried sitting in a classroom style setup, with the President at the front and the rest of the Chapter sitting in the seats. However, the arrangement we have found most beneficial is to have all members of the Chapter sit in a giant circle. This way, everyone can see everyone with minimal movement of the head and allows more open discussion.
These are the big ways that the Mu Nu Chapter has severely cut down on the length of chapter meetings. If you have questions about how you can make these things happen in your own chapter, feel free to contact us anytime!
Christopher Young
President '12
Kappa Kappa Psi - Mu Nu
Christopher Newport University
The Brothers of the Mu Nu Chapter with some visiting brothers from the Eta Omicron Chapter
