The Introductory Meeting
The first meeting of a semester is special in that a lot of new people will be there. Go around the room and do a round of introductions. Perhaps every member could comment on why they came. If there are too many people to do this, you should at least do it in the small-group or committee meetings.
Each project should make a presentation about its goals and past accomplishments, and the speaker should present herself or himself to the new members as the person to get in touch with if they’re interested. Be comprehensive and explain your terms so people don’t feel stupid or left out. Don’t make group members eat “alphabet soup.” For instance, try not to say things like this: “We’re ODing on the NYSDEC’s opposition to NFPA.”
Make sure something is going to happen! Endless talk is boring. People are only going to keep coming to meetings if they get involved in some concrete action. As many group members as possible should go home with something to do between then and the next meeting. Coordinators should think beforehand about how their project could employ people. Remember to be aware of people who can’t commit all that much. Assign tasks in bite-sized pieces. Afterwards, people can break up into groups and cluster around the coordinator of the project they’re interested in. The coordinators can collect names of interested people, and you should also pass around a general mailing list for everyone there to sign up on.
It might be helpful to have a “Pre-Introductory meeting” of your most active members to prepare all this.
Don’t have all the “core people” sit together in a block during meetings. Disperse yourselves throughout the group. This makes the mood of the meeting much more participatory.