Throwback Blog Post: Making the Most of Your Family Council Meetings
by Family Councils Ontario
It's hard to believe that we're already close to the end of November. Our office has received a lot of requests for suggestions on how to utilize Family Council time. That is why we'd like to revisit one of our 2016 themes and blog posts on "Making it Work" for Family Councils. There are many ways to make your Family Council more effective and efficient. One important topic Family Councils should consider when planning is using time put forth by members wisely. Take a look at our Throwback Tuesday post "Making the Most of Your Family Council Meetings."
Let’s turn our attention to making your meetings positive ... use that time together well. Here are a few ways to make the most of your Family Council meetings
Avoid the “Complaint Trap”
- FC meetings are more than just complaint sessions: if your meetings become ‘gripe sessions’ people will be reluctant to attend the meetings. No one wants to sit through 1-2 hours of negativity. While it’s important to make time for families to share their concerns and challenges, it’s also important to talk about what’s working well, work on events/projects/initiatives that improve the quality of life for residents, and support each other. Peer support is an integral part of a Family Council and should be an important part of your meetings!
- Open or close meetings with a round of positivity: start and/or end on a positive note! Go around the room and ask each member to share 1 positive thing that has happened to them since the last meeting. This can be personal or professional, it can relate to their loved one living in LTC or not. The important thing is to make space for positivity in the meeting.
Set and stick to an agenda
Agendas should include:
- Topics of discussion
- Decisions to be made
- Items for follow-up from previous meetings
- Time limits for discussion items
Balance support vs. getting work done
It’s hard to accomplish everything at a meeting, but here are a few tips to balance your time:
- Set clear time limit for open sharing time (this is where people share their challenges and successes, it’s not the time to share concerns for consideration to take on by the Council)
- Be clear about the purpose of sharing/support session
- Not the time for bringing up concerns you want the Council to take on! This is just for peer support
- Be clear about moving on to the business portion of the meeting and what this entails
- Create and stick to an agenda.
Use guest speakers wisely
A guest speaker can be a great way to educate and inform families on topics of interest, such as Alzheimer’s disease, the role of PSWs in LTC, how the LTC system works, self-care tips etc… However, it’s also important to make sure you have time for the other work of a Council. Consider:
- How often you book guest speakers; monthly? Quarterly? Annually? How often you book a guest speaker depends on the interests, needs, and work of the Council. Ask your members how often they want to have a guest speaker presentation and remember not to let your other work and goals fall by the wayside
- Which guest speaker topics are most relevant, desired, and interesting? A good way to know is to ask your members, perhaps informally at a meeting, through a survey, or by taking requests/suggestions on an ongoing basis. Decide on a guest speaker the same way your Council makes any other decision to ensure that your policies and procedures are being followed.
- Ensure that the guest speaker presentation is valuable: will your members be able to use the information provided after the presentation? Will the presentation benefit attendees? Use your time together wisely by ensuring that guest speaker presentations will be useful to Council members.
Don’t ignore issues
- Address conflict and disagreements as they occur; members should feel heard and their concerns should be addressed
- If you’re unsure or uncomfortable addressing conflict in meetings, seek out resources, and support to learn how to manage conflict and have difficult conversations. Ask your Staff Assistant or Family Councils Ontario for more information.
Focus on your mission/purpose
- Ensure that the work you do during a meeting (guest speakers, processing concerns etc…) all help you achieve your mission/purpose and help to improve the quality of life of people living in LTC
Consider what you want to do outside of meetings
- Does your Council want to take on a project or activity? (hint: taking on a project is a great way to increase the positivity of your group!)
- Do you need sub-committees or groups to take on specific pieces of work e.g. communication strategy, project groups? Decide how these groups will report back to the entire Council to ensure that information is shared
We hope these suggestions are useful! Remember, time spent wisely is time well spent!