How to Plan a Family Meeting
Family meetings are a great way to solve family problems. These group meetings also bring the members of the family closer together by making everyone feel heard and letting them know that their thoughts and feelings are important. Meetings are a great way to plan future family activities and events, too. Follow a few steps to develop more organized family discussions.
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Instructions
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Plan the meeting on an evening when everyone is generally available. The meeting should be mandatory for everyone in the household.
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Choose a chairman. This person will be responsible for starting the meeting, keeping control and switching to the next topic.
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Assign someone to take notes. This position can change weekly. The person taking notes should write down all the topics and record everyone’s response. This is helpful for future meetings to see how the family is progressing, and what has worked and not worked.
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Sit everyone down and move around the room in a circle from person to person as you address each topic. When one family member is speaking, all others should remain quiet, even if they disagree. Others should comment on their turn only. This ensures that everyone gets a fair chance at speaking their feelings and shows that everyone’s feelings are important.
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End on a positive note. At the end of each meeting, plan a family event for the following weekend. Everyone in the family should have a suggestion. An easy way to do this is to have everyone write their suggestion on a piece of scrap paper, fold it and place it in a bowl. Each week select a new person to draw from the bowl and choose the family event.
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Tips & Warnings
If someone keeps interrupting others, remove them from the meeting or take a time out until everyone settles down.
Emphasize the importance of the meeting by being consistent and sticking to the meeting rules.
Once someone’s event has been chosen, they should not submit a new idea at the following meeting until everyone’s event has been picked.
Family meetings can become very heated during sensitive topics. Be sure to have someone in control and remind everyone that yelling and arguing doesn’t solve anything.
