Setting ground rules

Guest Contributor: Kirsten Harrell
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It is important to set up ground rules when you start a Mastermind group. Having ground rules in place before the group starts is a good way to minimize or avoid trouble down the road. The Mastermind group (7 members) that I started has the following ground rules that we all agreed to before we began our first meeting.

Ground Rules
- Start meetings on time. In the interest of keeping our calls to 75- 90 minutes, we won't backtrack to fill in a member who is late. If someone knows they will be late, they will inform the group or group leader.

- End meetings on time. We are all very busy and time is precious. In order to keep the meetings to 75-90 minutes we will need to keep to a time schedule (10 minutes per person) so that we can end the meetings on time.

- Absences - Notify the group if you will miss a meeting.

- Time limits. Each group member will have 10 minutes at each meeting. We will need to have a timekeeper at each meeting to keep us on track. If someone needs more time at a particular meeting it is possible to ask for another person's time.

- Confidentiality. We will all agree to keep the details of each meeting confidential. If we choose to share our own experiences in the group we can; however, we are not allowed to share details about another member's experience.

- Order of participation. We will rotate alphabetically the order of participation to make sure we are clear about who's turn it is.

- Respect. Only one person talking at a time. We will respect the person talking by listening and not interrupting.

- Leaving the group. If a group member wants to quit the MM group he/she will let the group know ahead of time.

- Terminating membership. If the group feels that a member is not participating, the group can decide to terminate the person's membership.

- Adding members. Before adding any new members, the group must unanimously agree to do so.

Meeting format
Each person will have a turn to share and get feedback at every meeting. We will each have 10 minutes of mastermind time. During our ten minutes we will 1) update the group on our wins/progress, 2) ask for assistance/answers/support, and 3) announce our new goals. We will stick to 10 minutes per person.

These ground rules are just one example ground rules for a Mastermind group. You may want to use something similar or create your own from scratch. The important thing is that everyone in the group agrees to the ground rules. If you started your group without ground rules, it's not too late... you can create the ground rules and implement them now.