We're all professionals and have attended our share of meetings. Most of which ended up being a waste time. However, a well thought out, structured meeting can lead to creative thinking by the attendees. Never meet just to meet.
The Tournament Director should be the facilitator. As the facilitator, the meeting must be clearly defined. Create an outline to hand out with meeting topics. If possible, send it out in advance that way the participants can have time to prepare and think about what they could contribute. The facilitator should also appoint someone to record the discussionis during the meeting if they're not capable.
The facilitator should control the meeting, keeping everyone on topic and not allowing any one individual to dominate the discussion. This stifles creativity. If this begins to happen, stop the discussion and refocus the group. Ask questions of those not joining in. The more ideas, the more options. Set a time limit for any one topic and if necessary table it til the end or a future meeting if possible. Meetings are times for decisions to be made, not stumbling blocks of indecision. Build upon ideas for future meetings.
Finally, it is imperative that after the meeting a recap memo be sent to all attendees. In the recap you should:
- Recap the decisions that were made
- Any open items for future discussion
- 3. List anyone responsible for follow ups
- 4. List any important items and their deadlines.