HTS Meeting Organizing Guide

This guide is meant to set some guidelines to ensure a structured and orderly, yet still maintain an open public and democratic approach to organization.

All meetings are to take place in the open where people are free to participate, but to ensure that we stay on agenda and conversation is concise and relevant, the channel is muted to staff members and those who have been voiced upon request to say a few relevant words. A second channel exists that is free for public discussion. If something is relevant, text may be cut + pasted into the main meeting channel, or normal users may be voiced upon request.

To ensure that everything stays on task, roles should be selected:

• Meeting facilitator - ensures that we stay on agenda, gives meeting introductions, must stay unbiased and provide a free platform of discussion where all opinions have the opportunity to be presented and kept civil.
• Note taker - has various meeting related tasks including posting the meeting log, create legislation forum threads on each proposal that is introduced, and write a brief summary on each agenda item discussed.
• Meeting operator / coordinator - sets proper channel permissions, coordinates with the public discussion channels and voices users in the main meeting channel as needed(essentially the bridge between public users and staff members in conducting the meeting)

Upon completion, the meeting log(along with a meeting summary in a timely manner) and the forum threads for each proposal.

This is by no means a rigid must-follow guide to organizing, but it should give insight on having a productive, concise meeting process that leaves room for flexibility and democracy.