There's Help for Dysfunctional Meetings
by Elaine Cogan

Elaine Cogan offers "first aid" for meetings that don't seem to work.

Most planning commissions have proscribed rules and methods about how to make legally binding or policy decisions. You probably follow Robert's Rules or at least are expected to subscribe to its major tenets.

But many agenda items are procedural, advisory or preliminary to making that grand decision. Robert's Rules are of little use there and may, in fact, get in the way. It is in handling these matters that too many planning commission meetings become dysfunctional.

Consider these as first aid solutions to troubled meetings.

The Agenda. Controlling the agenda is the first way to rein in runaway meetings. Place and consider the items in order of importance, not in the tiresome and non-productive usual sequence of "minutes, old business, new business." It makes sense to tackle new business when you are all at your freshest, and that is usually at the beginning of the meeting.

Some public bodies take another approach: dividing matters into categories-- a "consent agenda" and an "action agenda." The former contains routine items that may be dispensed with by general agreement of the decision-making body, with the proviso that any member may remove any item to the "action" or decision category. In some communities, a member of the public also can request this be done.

Though this method speeds up the meeting so you can cover the most important items before you are worn out, you have to be careful that the public does not suspect you of duplicity. One way to avoid this is to print all the items on both agendas and have them available for review, giving the public as well as the commissioners an opportunity to comment. ...