Notes by Chris Callard
This forum meeting was facilitated by Frank Jay of New Era Associates. Frank has many years experience of putting teams together for various projects and came along to lay out his idea for structuring our meetings and groups to make them more productive and appealing to newcomers.
Permanent date for meetings
In order to make establish TBH meetings in people's minds they should be at the same time each month and at the same venue – forum meetings will now be on the last Wednesday of every month at The Werks. When the introductory sessions have started they shall be on the same day each month.
Clear and measurable statement of the group's aims
Frank also pointed out that one of TBH's weaknesses is that we don't have a clear and memorable mission statement. This applies both to the group as a whole and to each of the interest groups. The missions statement (reflecting TBH's aim to be a community response to climate change and peak oil) should be stated at the beginning of each meeting and each step in our progress measured against this statement. The statement should be clear and measurable and able to be reeled off by any member of TBH when asked. The hub are to clarify this mission statement at their next meeting, then it will be put up on the website and drummed in to members far and wide. Each interest group should also have a measurable mission statement which reflects their part of the whole groups aims e.g. the Food group's might be that B&H be responsible for producing all its own food by 2020.
Format of meetings to make them more productive
In order that all meetings are engaging to those present and reflect progress towards a goal, Frank suggested the following format for every meeting:
• Chair of the meeting to restate TBH's/the interest group's mission statement
• A reminder of the last milestone objective set by the group
• An update on how we are doing towards that milestone
• Questioning what's next towards that milestone
Notes on TBH forum meeting – Wed 2 July
