After having chaired consecutively two months of the Lawyers' Legion (L.L) monthly meeting, I have identified a problem in the flow of communication during the whole process of the meeting. The atmosphere of the meeting is basically stressed and somewhat not in focused on the subject, which is being discussed. Therefore, I would like to suggest a series of changes to be implemented, with the hope of improving interaction level among the members of Lawyers' Legion.
First and foremost, we must ensure that we have a proper meeting environment so that every member will feel at eased and comfortable during the meeting. Having a proper meeting environment includes the choice of locations, a suitable size of the meeting room and also the time of the meeting. The chosen location must be accessible to all the members. The choice on the size of the meeting room is also very crucial as having too large a room, might result in having small groups of members drifting into different parts of the room, thus losing focus during the meeting; however, if the meeting room is too small, members might feel uncomfortable due to the cramp environment.
Lajos (Louis) Kossuth
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The Vaughan Library, Harrow SchoolThe time on which the meeting is held also affects the behavioural pattern of the members. If the meeting is held after lunchtime, the members might be less active especially if they have taken a heavy lunch thus the schedule of the meeting should be chosen appropriately.
Ice breaking activities could be set up to break the ice among the members. Monthly outings inclusive of all their family members could be organized in order to create chances and opportunities for them to get to know each other better. Activities such as a friendly golf match, gala dinner or tours could be arranged.
I would also like to suggest the implementation of drawing up official agenda for each and every meeting so as to ensure that the flow of the meeting is smooth and uninterrupted. Another advantage of having an agenda is that it will help keep all the members focused on the same issue and keep them on the same line of thought thus minimizing the occurrence of them having private conversations during the meeting.
Next, official minutes should be taken during all of the Lawyers' Legion meetings. After that, the minutes could be distributed to each and everyone before the commencement of the next meeting. This will aid the members in reviewing their previous decisions and it could also keep them up to date on the recent happenings.
Another way to ensure that all the members are being kept up to date thus able to participate more freely during discussions is to conduct monthly report presentation to inform them on the progress of the Legion"ÃÂs "projects". Members could also take turn to present the reports. Visual aids could be used to capture the attention of the members during the presentation of the reports.
Finally, I would like to suggest that the communication flow chart of the meetings be re-evaluate and necessary changes to be made so as to create a platform in which all the members could participate freely during discussions thus cultivating a sense of belonging to the Lawyers' Legion, in them. Red tapes hindrance could be minimized in order to ensure active contribution from all the members during the meeting.
In the above paragraphs are various suggestions and ideas, which I hope could solve the problems that have cropped up in the process of the Lawyers' Legion monthly meeting
Andrew Jackson