I think I'd like to sort of streamline the meeting format so that we
can take care of what we need to and not drag on too long. The basic
ideas I've had so far are here:
The general idea is to limit discussion at the meeting to things that
are important / relevant to all members, and in particular things that
members need to vote on. Other discussions, planning, etc, should
take place outside the meeting on the mailing list, IRC and wiki - or
in person after the "official" meeting. This will be something we
will have to get accustomed to, since in the past we've used the
meetings to do a lot of discussion.
I'd appreciate feedback on what I've come up with. It's a barebones
structure right now. Also, let me know if this move is in the wrong
direction and you would prefer more discussions to take place at the
meetings.
I just have some simple suggestions for improving the flow of things at the meetings:
Respect the agenda and the person who has the floor. This will ensure we have plenty of time afterwards to talk about Pixie Sticks.
Minimize open discussions and suggestion seeking. They take up a lot of time and invite tangential discussions. Use the group email list to gather suggestions and discuss your ideas, and then if you still can’t weed it down to just one solution, only bring two or three options to the meeting for us to choose between.
Keep your updates relevant to all members and keep them simple.
Have the “working groups” fallen to the wayside since we got the physical space, or have I just not heard much about them since I’m not officially a member of any of them? Perhaps we need to make them more prominent and their members need to set up independent meeting times if they need facetime to discuss ideas?
For projects that have multiple people working on them, we can easily create “working groups” for them. Don’t know if that will help with the meetings but it could help in general.