Bless Zoshe
Buea, Cameroon
Members of Junior Chamber International, JCI Buea Summit, have been trained on how to better organize, chair, and manage their chapter meetings.
This was during a one day exchange held on Thursday March 27, 2013, at the Cameroon Cultural Centre, Buea.
The training focused on aspects of meeting procedures such as planning; before, during and after, appropriate terminologies like ‘call to order’, ‘move a motion’, adjournments, and other ways of making meetings more attractive.
Emphasizing the importance of such training, the facilitator, Senator Tedd Eyong said he was inspired by the book ‘Robert’s Rule of Order’, and that in JCI, leadership is judged based on the quality of the meeting.
Tedd Eyong facilitating group task
“You may have a year full of activities, but if your meetings are poorly managed, we say you were not a good leader. So, it is obligatory for every JCI member to have gone through training like this, to master the meeting procedures. It is exciting to either move a motion or have it sustained during meetings. A lot of people think that you can be a good talker, and you chair a meeting successfully. No, it is not just that.
It is pre-planning; you must prepare the meeting, know the agenda in advance, know all the reports that are going to be submitted in advance, as well as the delicate issues that can make the meeting drag. You can even plan to have persons you think should even move a motion. So it is about planning a meeting, knowing who should do what, when, and how the person should do it.
Otherwise, you could present your agenda during a meeting, and call for adoption, yet, no motion comes, and you have no meeting.
My interaction with these JCI members today was quite exciting. A lot of them were eager to learn, and the exercises we did, really brought out their hidden talents. I hope that this will inspire them, and some may even pick up jobs as secretaries and Personal Assistants for would-be Senator, why not?, ” Eyong explained.
Tedd Eyong, trainer
The resource person went on to identify time management as a crucial element during meetings, adding that learning these new techniques would help JCI members be more professional, increase participation, and generally, ensure more effectiveness in meeting management
On his part, one of the Executive Vice Presidents, JCI Cameroon, Simon Ngwange Teke admitted that the training was organized because they realized that in Buea, they had lapses especially with young people communicating.
“Thus, such trainings come up once in a month, to empower members, so that they can have these skills to enable them develop. After this, we expect to see how our meetings will improve in terms of understanding the rules, and working on our timing,” Teke added.
The crux of the training was the group tasks that enabled members to demonstration practical aspects of meeting procedures.
At the end of the training, the close to 30 participants acknowledged that they had learnt much and pledged to pass on the knowledge not only in JCI, but also in other forums.
