Youth work meetings. Everyone has them. Some have more than others but they’re pretty standard in professional youth work today.
When it comes to attending meetings, youth workers can easily fall into one of two patterns. They’re either always in them or they never attend any. Both can lead people to ask ‘What do you do all day?’ and neither will do much to enhance your reputation. Today’s post is about helping you try to find the balance, while in a couple of weeks we’ll show you how to make youth work meetings more productive when you do have them.
Too Many Youth Work Meetings
If you look for a sign-in sheet when you sit down to have dinner with your family each night, you might attend too many meetings.
Some meetings can’t be avoided, like those mandated by your supervisor or organization. However, it’s very easy to find yourself in a lot of meetings that aren’t necessary to your work which might end up negatively impacting your youth.
How you ask? You might be in so many meetings that you don’t have time to adequately prepare for youth sessions, you’re missing out on attending youth activities or aren’t having the necessary time to plan strategically for upcoming programming.
Here are three tips for spending less time in meetings and more time meeting the needs of your youth:
- Prioritize – Is it really necessary for you to attend every meeting that comes into your inbox? Even the fun ones like youth worker networking events should be reviewed. Determine which non-essential meetings are the most productive and attend those first.
- Delegate – Are you the only person who can attend a meeting? There might be an eager intern, volunteer or assistant youth worker that would jump at the chance to attend a meeting or two, make some contacts and be given some ownership within the program. Identify a meeting that you don’t have to attend as a trial run. Give your replacement any information they may need to be aware of, as well as any expectations you have for speaking in the meeting or reporting back. If it’s successful, consider other meetings that could be delegated.
- Speak Up – Do you need to meet with your supervisor or line manager so they can help you prioritize and delegate your meetings? Once you’ve done all you can and you still feel like there are too many meetings, spend some time going over your schedule with your supervisor or manager. Sometimes others can see things we can’t. You might be too invested in the reason of each meeting to effectively prioritize and/or delegate them.
Too Few Youth Work Meetings
If your professional colleagues look at the website and ask who the new guy is when you’ve been at your organization for five years, you might be attending too few meetings.
While some meetings are mandatory and some are unproductive and therefore easily skipped, some meetings provide a valuable time for networking, building partnerships within the community and gaining important information about developments in youth work. By skipping most meetings, you might be missing out on information that can only improve your youth work.
For example, one meeting I attended recently informed me that young people in the local area are generally using hand signals to indicate what level of sexual interaction they’re looking to have with someone else. The one receiving the signal gives another signal to approve or disapprove of the request and so on. Without attending that meeting I might have been missing – quite literally – the signs in front of my face about youth sexual health and sexual activity.
Here are three things to think about when considering whether or not to attend a ‘non-essential’ meeting:
- Youth – Will the content of this meeting significantly impact my direct work with youth? There may be programs, new projects and fundraising ideas shared at a meeting. Those are the kinds of things you don’t want to miss out on, that can help your youth work be more inclusive, offer more services and be better resourced.
- Organization – Will the content of this meeting significantly impact my organization? Networking and opportunities for partnerships can be a great asset, particularly to small organizations that need support from larger organizations and for large organizations that need to be more involved at a local level. Don’t just think how you personally will benefit, but also consider the betterment of your whole organization. Still not sure? Use the three tips above and delegate some of these meetings out until you’re sure they will be worth the investment of your time.
- Practice – Will the content of this meeting significantly impact my practice and professional development? You might learn new tips for best practice, about new regulations coming down the pipeline or about a new training program. These can only serve to improve your praxis as a youth work practitioner.
Don’t be too quick to avoid meetings, nor too quick to join them. Manage your time and workload effectively so you can best serve your youth, your organization and your own professional practice.
Question: What kinds of meetings do you attend? What tips would you give for knowing when to join in and when to get out? Let us know in the comments below.
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