[dewoun]

I have been an admin for my employer for over 5 years and we continuously have the same problem- our meeting attendance numbers are low. We have 30 Directors who receive a calendar at the beginning of the fiscal year that lists meeting dates for the year, email notifications at least 3 weeks in advance, as well as follow-up emails asking to RSVP. Still out of the 30, we may have 10-12 people attend. It is important to note that the dates are predetermined by the Executive Director and President.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to increase our meeting attendance? Any strategies, tips?

Thanks,

Dewoun

[Jeannine312]

My gut feeling is that the meeting may not have enough valuable content to inspire attendance. I think folks will attend for one of three reasons:

1 - the meetings are informative and/or fun and one wouldn't want to miss
2 - the meeting's new info is imperative to successfully completing one's assignment
3 - the meeting's organizer (aka Exec Director) is present and clearly shares the expectation that attendance is mandatory

Maybe the "Team" needs to be redefined to include only those who need to be there; possibly that's who is attending now.

Hope it helps!

[PartyPlanner]

That's always a problem. I've often compared getting people to meetings to "herding cats". Have you considered calling them a week or two before the meeting and speaking to their Assistants (or them if they don't have Assistants). Email is so easy to ignore. It's harder to ignore a real live person on the phone.

Is it a volunteer Board or are they paid? If they are volunteering their time, it's going to be harder to require them to attend.

On the other hand, if your President and E.D. require them to attend and they are not showing, a change in Directors may be in order but that decision has to come from the E.D. and President.

[brian]

Do you host a conference call along with the meeting? You may get better attendance that way especially if attendees would otherwise need to travel. Also, I agree with Jeannine312 that maybe some of the people view the meetings as ineffectual based on past meetings. Have you asked the people directly why they are not attending?

[Momof3]

1. Why not use Survey Monkey to send out a free survey to the 30 Directors asking about the lack of attendence and or participation for these meetings. You make want to include questions regarding the venue, topics and / or what they would need to make the meetings more beneficial.

2. The team might also what to assign round robin fresh Keynote presentations to the Directors to be given at these meetings. These topics could include updates, training or some other information regarding the state of the state from each Director's point of view.

3. You could also try having your upper management take responsibility and accountability for these meetings. They could set the precedent that everyone wshould attend. If someone doesn't, why not? Maybe then attendees won't want to want to miss anything or be called out for not attending.

[dewoun]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and feedback.
@PartyPlanner- members are volunteers; however, dedicated to the cause because they support each event by attending or contributing. It's the meetings they can't seem to attend for whatever reason. I work for a non-for-profit organization.
@Brian - the conference call idea is great.
@Momof3 - Please explain what "round robin fresh" presentations are. It sounds like a good idea to get members more involved and puts more responsibilities on them.

Thanks again, everyone.

[Momof3]

Dewoun,

Not knowing what these meetings are intended to cover, it is difficult to say what the exact topics should be. You should invite / delegate one of the 18 directors that usually doesn't show for a meeting to make a presentation at the next meeting to elaborate on a topic that is of concern to his or her team and then have them share their approach to the solution. Or they could share a win; meaning a project case study, a client testimonial, how they are successfully mentoring staff, how the team is incorporating new Web 2.O solutions to a business problem or they could discuss a new approach to client relations. It even could be an ideation session on a global company issue that is facilitated by one of these otherwise non-participatory directors. Next meeting choose a another MIA director. This will keep things fresh and interesting and maybe these guys will catch on that if they don't show up they will get picked to show up. Could also be good indicator of how directors are managing others and / representing themselves in front of a group. A lot of insight might be gained by the Exec Director.

Have fun!

[dewoun]

Awesome! Thanks for the explanation- I like the term "round robin fresh."

[Patricia]

I recently took a presentation workshop and the facilitator told us that people are either willing attendees at meetings or "prisoners." Some people don't want to be there. They might be required to attend by their boss, but feel it is a waste of their time. That is the worst kind of attendee.

People definitely need to see a reason they need to be there and not only because it is on the calendar. For instance, if decisions need to be made that require their attendance, quorum won't be reached unless they attend or if the content is appealing to them. They may find the meeting boring, but see it as necessary and people are depending on them to move forward as an organization.

Your Board may consider putting it in their governance manual that if a Director misses two meetings in a row without a good reason they risk being removed from the Board and then keep good attendance.

You don't want to be a tattle tale, but I follow up with members if I haven't heard back from them with an e-mail saying, "Further to the meeting request below, I look forward to hearing from you regarding your attendance." I always copy their assistant and the Chair of the Board. I keep it at a business level and not personal.