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Event Tips and Suggestions – Nonprofit HR Professional

Keep the initial meeting short and simple.

While a restaurant is an easy gathering space, it may get crowded, the lunch hour may be a stressful time for the restaurant, and it may limit the number of people who can attend. If you have access to a larger conference room, this may be ideal. You can ask people to bring a brown bag lunch, or hold the meeting early in the morning and provide a simple, continental breakfast, requesting a $3.00/donation per person to cover the costs.

The first meeting should have a facilitator (probably you), who makes some initial opening statements and facilitates introductions. Otherwise, leave the majority of the time for networking. Commitment comes from relationships, and from people catching a vision together. The first meeting should be a time to focus on getting to know one another, with little imposed structure. At the end of the second meeting, ask more direct questions. Where would we like to take this group? Would we like to have a presenter next time? Does someone else want to host the meeting?

Don’t let meetings end without coming back together as a group and making a plan for next time. Ask for a commitment to the next meeting right then and there, and follow up.

If the meetings become too much administrative work, try to move the group into a more cooperative effort, where a different individual is responsible for the meeting each time. If this doesn’t work, you may be able to ask a local university program or volunteer center to unofficially “house” the network, and to appoint an intern or a student to help with administrative matters.

If the meetings just don’t seem to be taking off, with little attendance or interest, stop and reassess. Ask yourself if there are there other local resources you may not know about, such as resources that may be already meeting these needs. Or, if there are even two people who have expressed interest, perhaps the concept could evolve into peer mentoring relationships, offered one-on-one, rather than in a network. Sometimes, this kind of mentoring will naturally develop into a larger network over time. And remember, sometimes smaller is better!

If the meetings are continuously mobbed by attendees, and you are unable to keep up with the administration, or you feel that resources are not being effectively shared, consider an email listserv, or splitting the group into two or three “sister” networks.

Most importantly, don’t get discouraged! Vibrant networks take cooperative work, and a lot of it! However, these local, living networks can become your most important asset as a nonprofit human resources practitioner, and may be well worth the effort.