True progress for our Muslim community comes from collaboration between our leadership. Leadership meetings help facilitate this purpose. This document outlines how those meetings are conducted and how participants are expected to behave.
¶ Prerequisites
The leadership meeting guidelines build upon MSA's general meeting bylaws. Make sure to read and understand the following first:
Meeting Bylaws How to properly conduct & behave during meetings¶ Purpose
Leadership meetings are an opportunity for the MSA board, committee heads and representatives from participating sister organizations to follow up with one another, collaborate and provide updates. It is best to think of these meetings as a roundtable for Muslim leadership on campus rather than an MSA meeting.
The MSA Leadership consists of the board, committee heads, and officers. Officers are not required to attend this meeting however because they report directly to a single board member and are assigned very specific tasks.
Leadership meetings are a time to do the following:
- Identify areas of collaboration between MSA board, committees, and sister organizations
- Prevent time conflict or inefficient resource distribution between various events and initiatives
- Collect brief feedback on event ideas and initiatives
- Share guidance, resources, and connections
- Deliver important updates
- Review past action items
- Assign action items
- Make final decisions
Leadership meetings are NOT a time to do the following:
- Brainstorm or come up with ideas
- Discuss low-level event logistics (food, location, etc.)
- Dwell too long on any single discussion point
Brainstorming and low-level event logistics discussions are not time-effective conversations and do not require all Muslim leadership to be present. Such conversations can easily take place on Slack or at a separate meeting. Meeting attendees should use this meeting to learn about what others are doing and allocate separate time to follow up with the respective individuals.
¶ Facilitator
The Internal Vice President is the facilitator of leadership meetings. S/he is responsible for adhering to MSA's meeting bylaws. Most notably, the Internal Vice President is responsible for...
- Booking a location for leadership meetings every week
- Updating leadership meeting location on the MSA public calendar
- Sending out an agenda at least 24 hours in advance to all MSA leadership
- Assigning a khaterah (short Islamic reminder) to a different attendee every week
- Taking meeting attendance every week on a spreadsheet that is always available to all attendees
- Taking discussion notes during meetings (with the help of other members)
- Following up with individual members regarding their assigned action items
¶ Time & Location
Leadership meetings are predefined to take place on Mondays 7-8pm every week during the academic school year. Leadership meetings during the summer and winter breaks may occur on a different day of the week. On days that class is not in session, it is up to the discretion of the Internal Vice President to decide whether to hold a virtual meeting. Meetings are usually held in 2nd and 3rd floor Eshleman hall conference rooms.
¶ Attendance
Attendance is mandatory for all board members and committee heads who are each allotted three absences maximum (with or without a valid excuse) per semester before they are approached to review expectations and level of commitment. Sister organization representatives are also asked to designate an individual who can abide by these attendance expectations. Absences from one-off meetings scheduled at a time other than the regular time do not count towards this limit. Calling into a meeting does not count as being present unless it is agreed upon beforehand that the meeting will be virtual. Arriving late to a meeting, or at least 15 minutes after the scheduled meeting time (5 minutes after Berkeley Time), counts as half an absence. The Internal Vice President will keep track of attendance in a spreadsheet that attendees can view at anytime.
Regularly attending student groups:
- Muslim Mental Health Initiative (MMHI)
- Association for Muslim Professional Development (AMPD)
The MSA board should consider inviting representatives from additional Muslim-identifying student groups as they see appropriate.
¶ Meeting Discussions
During leadership meetings non-MSA Board attendees are asked to provide their list of updates. Committee heads generally summarize the projects and partnerships that they are currently developing, reflect on past projects (ex: attendance, food, marketing efficacy, etc.), and ask administrative questions (getting Divvy cards for specific members, questions on how to run individual meetings, etc.). Sister organization representatives are at greater discretion on what to provide during leadership meetings but frequently provide a summary of upcoming projects and a reflection on previous projects as well. All members are encouraged to ask each other questions and provide support if able. Leadership meetings should be Muslim leadership supporting Muslim leadership on campus, and that is best facilitated through communication during these meetings.
¶ Flow
- Begin each meeting with 30 seconds of silence, asking all participants to renew their intentions and remember the correct meeting etiquette.
- Before each meeting, assign a different participant to share a short 2 minute Islamic reminder by reciting some Quranic verses or hadith of his or her choosing and explaining their significance.
- After the Islamic reminder, grant each member 30 seconds to update everyone on their wellbeing in the past week and any commitments expected in the coming week. For the sake of time, other members should not comment or ask questions during these 30 seconds.
- Call on each committee head, one by one, asking them about the status of events they proposed at previous meetings and any new updates. Take clear notes and assign action items on the meeting minutes document.
- Call on each student organization representative, one by one, also asking them for updates. Take clear notes and assign action items on the meeting minutes document.
- Allow 5 minutes at the end for free forum where anyone can bring forth miscellaneous announcements, feedback and concerns.
- End every meeting with a short duaa or by reciting Surat al Asr.
- Follow up with individuals throughout the week regarding their assigned action items.
¶ Leadership Trainings
It is the Internal Vice President's responsibility to schedule leadership trainings every 2-3 weeks in place of and during the same time as a regular leadership meeting. Having checkins meetings every week does not provide our leadership with enough time to make significant progress worth an update. Scheduling regular leadership trainings allows more time between each checkin meeting while allowing our leadership to still meet every week, be accessible to one another, and learn new skills or information from qualified guest speakers. The Internal Vice President should consult the board and draft a list of qualified speakers and topics at the beginning of each semester that address the community's most pressing issues at the time. Previous trainings have included topics like combatting anti-Blackness and how to negotiate with campus administration. These trainings should be hosted by an expert brought in to provide accurate and effective information, not the Internal Vice President.
¶ Socials
Once or twice a semester, it is highly recommended that a leadership social is planned to allow meeting attendees the opportunity to feel more comfortable around one another. This can be as simple as going out for dinner or dessert. Although socials tend to be viewed as less productive than professional meetings, leadership socials are critical to the cohesiveness of our team. In relaxed social environments, members learn more about people's personalities, strengths and weaknesses, improving communication, accountability, and productivity.
¶ Comprehension Quiz
If you were instructed to read this page as part of an online training curriculum, you must submit this quiz and answer all questions correctly. In the case that you do not answer a question correctly, you may view which questions were incorrect and take the quiz again.
