AT-00003

Sometimes a meeting needs to be quite fluid.  This does not mean there is a lack of planning, but the course taken will depend on decisions made early in the agenda.

A skilled and creative facilitator who can change course quickly has a method of using Meetingworks in an "ad hoc" fashion.  She creates an agenda that consists of the following loop:

• Manual
• Generate
• Organize
• Evaluate

During the meeting the chauffeur types brainstorming questions or topics before running the Generate step.  Likewise, the method of evaluation may need to be changed just before running the step.  By using a "loop", these few steps can be customized over and over to meet the needs of the group.

Detailed Instructions:
The Manual step begins the loop.  Its step purpose contains words such as "Start discussion", and the Step Name contains a "%L" to begin the counter for a loop.  For example, the Step Name would be "Begin Round %L".

The Generate step would be set up to save both types of output files (outline and non-outline).  The output file would contain a "%l" (e.g., ROUNDA%l).  The Organize step would use "ROUNDA%l" as the input file and "ROUNDB%l" as the output file.  Evaluate would follow with "ROUNDC%l" as the output file.  All instructions for the public display would be quite general in nature, to be defined just before the step runs.

During the meeting, the chauffeur runs the Manual step to start the counter.  Then, the chauffeur double-clicks on the Generate step and fills in the topic list (one or more items) as requested by the facilitator.  Other changes are made as appropriate (participant mode for multiple topics).  The Organize step would likely need no changes before it is run.  The Evaluate step (optional) can be changed before running it (Evaluation method, instructions, etc.).

The next round of topics begins at the top of the loop.

The final document will take a little longer to prepare, since no one knows before the meeting how many times the loop will be run, which steps in it will be used, and what the topics are.  But, a skilled facilitator and skilled chauffeur can make this a very productive and progressive way to run a meeting!