Ensuring that all members are able to participate fully at meetings and carry out their challenge function in an open and constructive way

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Principle 2

Ensuring that all members are able to participate fully at meetings and carry out their challenge function in an open and constructive way

Participation in meetings

To maximise the value of having committee members with a range of backgrounds, skills and knowledge it is important that they are able and willing to fully participate at meetings, including asking challenging questions.  This has implications for both the committee members themselves and for the chair.

Committee members should:

  • Listen actively to the contributions of others and not interrupt
  • Not dominate meetings
  • Prepare well for meetings so their contributions are well formulated
  • Inform the chair well beforehand if they have major concerns or objections to a proposal being raised, so the Chair can ensure sufficient time is available for the discussion
  • Inform the chair beforehand if they want to raise an item of Any Other Business
  • Act as a critical friend and provide constructive criticism when appropriate
  • Be open to new ideas and views
  • Not be defensive in response to critical or challenging views
  • Seek clarification and/or additional information, if necessary, through the chair

The Chair should:

  • Seek the views of committee members on a major paper or policy prior to preparing the agenda, so by the time it comes to sending out the agenda initial concerns have already been dealt with
  • Ensure that the agenda and papers go out well in advance and the committee members are clear what is expected of them in relation to each item
  • Prevent substantive issues being raised that are not on the agenda, unless it is unavoidable
  • Encourage everyone to contribute to the meeting, particularly those who tend to contribute less, by asking, for example, “Is there anyone who hasn’t spoken on this issue yet who would like to say something?”
  • Discourage individual committee members from making long or repetitive contributions
  • Control the meeting to effectively get through the agenda but not dominate it
  • Get the opinions of other committee members, before expressing their own view on a substantive item
  • Ensure staff do not dominate committee meetings
  • Encourage committee members to carry out their challenge function but to do so respectfully
  • Speak to committee members privately if their attendance is poor or they are not contributing at meetings
  • Establish sub-committees or working groups, if necessary, to increase participation in relation to key governance issues