{"id":260,"date":"2017-04-03T20:15:06","date_gmt":"2017-04-03T19:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/?p=260"},"modified":"2020-02-25T13:56:45","modified_gmt":"2020-02-25T13:56:45","slug":"the-joy-of-the-annual-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/?p=260","title":{"rendered":"The joy of the annual meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"boring<\/a>About this time of year many charities and churches are required, by law, to hold an annual meeting; and the prospect fills many leaders with something close to despair.<\/h3>\n

What will you find to talk about and why on earth would anyone come?\u00a0 After all, there are usually lots of really boring business type things that have to be done and who would be interested in that?<\/p>\n

It’s true, there is important business that this meeting has to transact, around elections, accounts and appointments, but that does not mean that this is all that has to happen.\u00a0 Indeed the annual meeting can be a real opportunity to do much more.\u00a0 Here are four brief ideas, perhaps particularly focused on church annual meetings, but equally applicable elsewhere.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u00a0Eat together<\/strong>.\u00a0 Offer drinks and nibbles and good company; this could be one of the few times that some people will spend time together and there is a real opportunity to get to know one another better.\u00a0 You also often find that the resultant meeting is far more relaxed and mellow (even if the refreshments do not include wine).<\/li>\n
  2. Tell stories.<\/strong>\u00a0 Alongside the business being transacted, tell tales about the year just gone, whether inspirational, funny or poignant, stories about the difference that your church or organisation has made in individual’s lives.\u00a0 Even better, get people along to tell their own stories!\u00a0 This is a great way of reminding everyone just why you are there.<\/li>\n
  3. Bring some Hollywood glamour<\/strong>.\u00a0 Why not take a leaf out of the Oscars or BAFTAS and\u00a0have a section of the meeting that has an ‘awards’ feel, using it as a way of acknowledging and thanking those who have contributed to the life of your organisation?<\/li>\n
  4. Share future vision<\/strong>.\u00a0 The meeting\u00a0is a\u00a0chance to share something of\u00a0what may\u00a0shape the coming year.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    It really is possible that you could send people out rejoicing and looking forward to when they may be able to do that again.\u00a0 Don’t believe me? Why not contact me <\/a>to talk about what might be possible at your upcoming\u00a0annual meeting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    About this time of year many charities and churches are required, by law, to hold an annual meeting; and the prospect fills many leaders with something close to despair. What will you find to talk about and why on earth would anyone come?\u00a0 After all, there are usually lots of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9,7,8,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charities","category-churches","category-communication","category-leadership","category-organisational-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":370,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions\/370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kevinlawrenceconsulting.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}