If you have family meetings between the various generations and family units every year, you may find that family members lose interest in those meetings over time.
How can you re-charge family member interest in attending the meetings?
We’ve had meetings for the past four years. Busy lives, new jobs, new careers, extended family vacations and babies have taken their toll on the time available to meet as well as the excitement level about the meetings. So, I took some time to think through how we could re-charge our meetings. Here is what I came up with.
Change the venue or the feel of the meeting.
Meet physically somewhere new – go outside, take it to a business center, go to a resort, rent a condo.
Meet online instead of physically – use Skype or Go to Meeting or some other online meeting site. Be sure you can see (and hear) each other and share documents.
Make it casual instead of formal – instead of a sit down meeting with an agenda, have each person come up with some conversation starters on the subject of their choice. Combine with coffee or wine and discuss casually.
Change the focus of the family meeting.
Try and educational session or a values discussion or set up a family organization/governance structure.
- Have a seminar instead of a meeting, attend a conference together. Plan for one or more family members to educate the children on a topic. Play games that enhance family legacy, stories or financial prowess.
- Tell stories about family history – make it a production – with pictures or movies or books or some other kind of participation.
- Visit family cemeteries and show pictures of deceased.
- Play games or answer quizzes to find common values.
Invite a third party to share information at the family meeting.
Have one member’s accountant or lawyer attend for an hour and educate or answer questions. Make sure payment terms are agreed to beforehand.
Have one or more successful family members (even from extended family) attend the meeting and talk about their job or business or industry – what they do, why they like it, how they prepared for it, what the rewards are.
Re-affirm or change the purpose of the generational family meeting.
Don’t keep droning on with the same tired agenda if it doesn’t support what the family wants or needs from the meeting.
Poll family members and find out what they want or need before the meeting.
Make suggestions on what the purpose can be – but avoid dictating what it should be.
Change the leadership of the multi-generation family meeting.
Rotate leadership but make sure the new leader knows what is expected. Define the leader duties and expectations for planning, holding and following up on the meeting.
The first generational family meeting may have been a new experience for all family members. It was exciting because it was different. After a few annual family meetings, members may decide the meetings aren’t worthwhile, or they have better things to do with the time, or they are too difficult.
Family meetings can be beneficial. Many wealthy families hold them each year. Learn what a family meeting might do for you.
Here’s why we started having official family meetings.
Do you hold family meetings? How do you keep family member interest high?
We don’t exactly have family meetings, but we do get together and talk about everything. It’s definitely helpful.
If you have kids, you might think about starting them now while the kids are home….it just makes sitting down together for (sometimes tough) discussions a routine.
We never had a meeting like this growing up, but I can see the value of it. When I have a family of my own, I might just have to do this.
My parents never had them either. I’m trying something new with our family (although I didn’t think of doing this until my kids were grown with kids of their own).
We never had meetings growing up and don’t live near family now. With only one daughter, it should be easy to do as she get older. I hope to give her all the knowledge my family never talked about. We’ll see if she pays attention.
Based on my experience, kids will some days pay attention and some days not. Even on the days they don’t seem to be paying attention, they probably are still getting your message.
I like this idea of a family meeting. While we haven’t had one like this, I see how it can be valuable and a good idea. Perhaps something to get in the practice of doing while the kids are young.
You could invite your parents too.
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