RLP #5: Leading Great Meetings
by NHS Staff
Tuesday
night, NHS hosted our fifth and final class of our 2014 Resident Leadership
Program, “Leading Great Meetings,” which was facilitated by Sarah Parmenter, Senior
Specialist, Community Building Program at NeighborWorks America®.
Sarah
began the meeting by asking for the group to set some “agreements” for how the
meeting should go. Class participants offered up many good agreements that were
accepted by the rest of the group in order to show respect for one and another.
Once
agreements were set, participants were asked to share, in one word or a short
phrase, what their “leadership style” was. Multiple participants agreed on
“inspiring” and “inspiration,” while others offered up answers ranging from
“example,” “dedication,” “sharing,” and “in the background,” showing that
leadership styles are diverse, and not any one is more correct than another.
The
class then divided into groups of three to reflect on past meetings they’ve led
or been a part of. The purpose of the discussion was to come up with a list of
traits of both great and poor meetings. Groups then shared what they had
discussed, many agreeing on various traits. Sarah then pulled the two lists
together by talking about how to fix the traits of poor meetings by utilizing
traits of good meetings.
The next activity that the group participated in was to divide into three different groups, based on three of the campaigns brought up during last week’s class, “Planning Successful Campaigns.” Tying the two classes together, Sarah asked the groups to plan how a successful meeting for the campaign would go, giving the group a chance to display their delegation and organizationskills.
The
class concluded with thank yous to facilitators and the handing out of
NeighborWorks® certificates to program participants. We are so grateful to
Sarah for joining us from the Boston NeighborWorks® office, and to all of the
participants and facilitators of this year’s Resident Leadership Program. We
look forward to continuing to work with these new Resident Leaders on the
campaigns and projects they would like to see in their communities, and hope to
see a few of them join us for the 2014 NeighborWorks® Community Leadership
Institute!
