Identify a location and time that’s convenient for members. It doesn’t need to take place at your school, although many find that is an optimal location. Other venues to consider are your local library or community center, which may have free rooms that you can reserve.

If group members have young children, consider recruiting a volunteer to provide childcare during the meeting.

Provide healthy snacks and/or refreshments. (Get some inspiration from our recipes section here.)

Email in advance the agenda and any working documents or tasks that need to be completed prior to the meeting. Aim for a balance between providing enough information to allow for a productive meeting, and providing too much information that may overwhelm members. When in doubt, the agenda with a few talking points is sufficient.

Consider opening some meetings with a video or article that provides an anecdote of how small and/or grassroots changes can create a big impact in the health of students and a school community. Here are a few that we recommend:

• Chef Ann Cooper’s TEDxManhattan Talk
  
• Changing School Food: A Resource for Parents and Advocates
• Talking About School Food with Chef Ann
• The Center For Ecoliteracy’s “Making the Case”

Note: While these videos are from several years ago, the information is still relevant to current day school food.

Set a time limit and stick to it. We recommend meetings are no longer than 90 minutes, especially if they occur in the evenings. When you create your agenda, outline the amount of time for each activity. Build in a 5-minute break about mid-way through for any meeting that goes over 60 minutes to allow for stretching and use of the restroom.

Assign rotating or ongoing roles for each meeting:

• Facilitator - Before the meeting, this person is responsible for identifying the topics for each meeting and drafting the agenda with input from group members. During the meeting, this person ushers the group through each agenda item as planned. This person should ask questions and not be afraid of pauses in discussion as members consider their response. If the group veers off topic, remind them that you have a jam-packed agenda and can add this new topic to the agenda for the next meeting. If this frequently occurs, it may be helpful to allocate 10 minutes at the end of each meeting for “other topics,” in which the group can discuss items that are time-sensitive but were not built into the agenda.
  
• Timekeeper - This person is responsible for making sure the meeting starts and ends on time by monitoring when the group is scheduled to move on to a new section of the agenda. It is helpful for this person to provide five-minute and two-minute warnings as the group approaches the end of the allotted time for each agenda item.
• Notetaker - During the meeting this person is responsible for following and documenting the conversation in the meeting. After the meeting, they are responsible for typing up the notes and distributing to the group.

Print copies of the agenda and any working documents for the meeting.

Test the technology set-up for the space, especially if you’ll be using a powerpoint or sharing a video that requires the internet. We recommend reserving the space 30 minutes before the meeting starts to set up and troubleshoot any issues that may come up.

Bring any supplies that may be needed for activities or to support dynamic discussion. We suggest having access to or utilizing at least one of the following: a white board with a variety of marker colors, a chalkboard with a variety of chalk colors, or poster-sized paper that you can tape to walls for brainstorming/discussion notes.