Creative Chapter Meetings

By Kristi Christy and Beth Goforth, National Executive Council Advisers

No one wants to go to a boring meeting and just sit and listen.  No matter when your chapter may meet, before school, after school, or during school, if you want members to be excited to come to chapter meetings, you have to make the meetings fun!  How do you add excitement? Here are eight things you can do. 

1. Have music playing as students enter the room or the area where the meeting will be held. 
2. Have food.  Teens love to eat! 
3. Be prepared! Have an agenda and make sure the officers know what they are responsible for speaking about. 
4. Don’t be afraid to use technology!  Instead of just having someone talk about an upcoming event, use QRvoice to make multiple QR codes that gives the same information.  Post the QR codes and have the members go on a scavenger hunt to scan each QR code and learn about the upcoming event. You can also have officers make a cheesy video with a flip camera or use the Puppet Pals App to create a funny animated video about an upcoming event that will tell members the information they need to know. 
5. Have team-building activities or ice breakers so members can get to know each other and work as a team. 
6. Always let the members vote on something.  Voting lets the members feel that they have a say in chapter activities and feel part of the group. It does not matter if they are voting to do a particular community service project or just voting on the color of a shirt; just give them something to vote on! 
7. Give out a couple of door prizes at each meeting.  
8. You and your officers should have a positive attitude about the meeting. You can’t expect your members to want to be at the meeting if you and your officers don’t want to be there.

Also, before school started this year, the FCCLA officers had a planning meeting to develop an annual Program of Work.  In this planning session, officers pick a different FCCLA National Program that relates well to the curriculum for each of the classes being taught.  In the first six weeks, each class uses the FCCLA Planning Process to develop a plan for the chosen project.  Each class then takes the lead to oversee the whole chapter in carrying out the project. All the national posters hang in the FACS room in order to keep each program visible. This also helps to visually keep track of progress. Many great projects help students gain leadership skills by completing these projects.

What are some chapter meeting ideas that have worked well for your organization?