Importance of meeting time and use of that time

Guest Contributor: George J. Sierchio
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Very important aspects of being part of a mastermind group is giving to others in the group, learning in general, and of course getting your chance to speak your mind and get answers to your problems.

You and everyone else in the group need a chance to participate from both the asking and answering side of the table as well as receiving some pure education. A solid group will contain a set time to bring in an outside speaker for educational purposes and/or have the facilitator do this piece. If you are in more of a peer group, then the members should be volunteering for this time slot on a topic that works for at least the majority of the group.

On top of that, everyone should have adequate time to say their peace when it's their turn, without interruption. In my opinion, that would mean at least 10 minutes (2 minutes for an update, 2 minutes to ask/explain the question, 5 minutes to get answers and 1 minutes to state what the next goals are to be achieved for the next meeting). Break these down into percentages of time allotted and that should allow you to find out if a group works well enough to consider joining.

For example, if a group of 9 meets for 2 hours 1 day every month with 30 minutes slotted for education, then they have 90 minutes for group work. That should mean 10 minutes each to say their peace. You would be number 10. That spells trouble unless they are planning on expanding the group time.

See what I mean? Even if this is a free peer group setting, not getting your chance could mean getting slighted every month. Or at least someone will. That would be pointless at any cost.

Personally I like groups that do a half day with 15 people max. Or a 2 hour call per month group with 12 or less and the educational portion outside of the meeting. There are different ways to deliver the educational portions and the best way is to have it available remotely such as in a recorded webinar. That saves everyone time and allows people to ask the presenter questions without losing precious meeting time that is best spent putting your heads together to solve problems that are necessary to achieve goals.

The bottom line is that whatever the cost of the group, your time is valuable and you need to be part of something that's well organized, provides you with everything necessary to achieve your goals, and give you the respect you deserve with equal time to solve your problems as you are helping others as well.