The pre-planning meeting is what you hold about six months before your post Leadership Conference planning meeting.
The goal is to identify key educational programs and strategic initiatives for which you want to nail down dates or have prearranged before you divulge it to your crowd at the summer meeting. Here are some items well suited for pre-planning:
- Chapter cosponsored open-enrollment courses
- Initial identification of leadership for next fiscal year
- Membership diversity initiative
- Foundation for a scholarship program
- Lending School curriculum
- New program format (such as a golf tournament)
This group doesn't have to be the full board plus all your committee members. Your pre-planning group should include the current year's chair, next year's chair (you), education committee chair, and other key, respected people whose support you will need to sell your agenda at the summer planning meeting.
Call these people in December when they are in good cheer and tell them you want to set a date, not this year, but in the next year (January, February, or March). They'll always agree to help you when it sounds like it's a long time away.
Have a written agenda and allot a specific amount of time for the meeting.
If you are all in the same location, you might want to schedule it around a box lunch in someone's conference room. If your crowd is remotely located, a conference call might do the trick. Just make sure you get the meeting materials to them ahead of time.
Take a look at RMA's information on how to cosponsor chapter training. This is a great source of excellent programs you can tie into, and the dates are already identified for the next RMA fiscal year. Decide which programs and dates suit you and commit to them early because they get booked pretty quickly.
If a topic takes on a life of its own that jeopardizes completing the meeting on time, assign one or more of the attendees to study the topic and get back to the group subsequent to the meeting for consensus.
On each decision your group makes, be sure that someone has ownership of the project before the meeting concludes.
For more information and for additional resources, please contact William Githens at bgithens@rmahq.org or 215-446-4124 or contact the Regional Manager for your area.