Running an Effective Meeting (Before, During, and After)- Part 2

As I posted in early November, Langley City Council and staff are always looking for ways to improve, including how we run our meetings. We are currently looking at ways to improve our decision-making process and have asked staff to review Best Practices for Efficient and Effective meetings to identify improvements we could potentially incorporate. As part of the process, City staff asked Council what areas we should focus on. They are as follows:

Order:

• There is effective management of questions from Council members to staff before, during, and after Council meetings to allow members to be informed and enable focused discussion at Council meetings

Focus:

• Have clarity in what we’re doing
• Focus discussion occurs with all members having equal opportunity to be heard
• There is consistency in how staff present information to Council, time management of agenda items, and how member of Council get their questions answered, allowing focused discussion during meetings

Efficiency

• Agenda items requiring more “brainpower” are placed early on the agenda
• Staff provide neutral advice to Council members to ensure proposed motions are actionable, written following best practices, and consider potential City resource requirements
• There is a consistent approach for members of Council to direct inquiries/complaints from community members to appropriate channels to ensure matters are addressed, including follow-up with Council, for example, a quarterly report on the top requests for service trends
• Appropriate time, number, and type of meetings are allocated to facilitate Council’s full consideration of significant agenda items; ie, initial meeting to provide information and context to Council, follow-up meetings for Q&A for Council, further information/updates provided as necessary prior to the item coming forward to a meeting for Council decision

Equality

• Getting a broad perspective from meeting participants
• Everyone has equal time for sharing their perspective

Decorm

• All members understand the process to make a motion to take a recess during meetings as needed

Safe Meeting Environment

• Valuing different perspectives while at the same time working together effectively

As I noted in my last post on this topic, these focus areas can also be useful if you are in a strata or non-profit and looking to improve the decision-making process for the organizations you are part of. Langley City staff will now be looking at best practices, approaches, or tools that Council could incorporate. Council would then have the opportunity to decide if, and to what extent, we want to incorporate them.