Five Steps for a Successful 20 Group Meeting
It may be just three times per year or a weekly email, but as a member of an NCM 20 Group, you likely work with the Client Services & Meeting Coordinators team at NCM. We are the “behind-the-scenes” meeting planners who make all the cogs in the machine of a 20 Group work together.
We do many tasks to ensure your meetings are productive and fun, but there are a few simple things that you can do yourself to ensure you have a more successful 20 Group meeting:
1. Actively work towards completing your commitments from the previous session.
By making a conscious effort to post those commitments in your office and look at them daily, you’re staying in the 20 Group mindset year-round. You'll make the most of your 20 Group Membership and put to work the tips and tricks you’ve learned in the meeting.
2. Submit your financial data monthly. Always.
The BEST meeting composite is a COMPLETE meeting composite. At NCM we know that while we live, eat, and breathe NCM, you do not—you are focused on your business! But if you come to a meeting without submitting financial data since the last one, you can’t get the full benefit of the agenda’s composite section.
And that’s where our moderators shine. They LOVE financial data and want to help you dig into that composite and find where your numbers can improve (and praise you for doing other things well! So next time you get a reminder email from me or one of my fellow coordinators, open it and do whatever you have to do to get that data submitted on time! Trust me; you’ll be glad you did.
3. Make your flight & hotel reservations.
One of the things I end up spending the most time on as a coordinator is chasing reservations. I ensure that every member (and his or her guests) has a place to sleep and reservations for dinners, activities, receptions—even golf outings! And it’s my responsibility to make sure no one in the 20 Group gets left behind, so I don’t rest until I hear from every member and member candidate.
You can minimize travel and hotel issues (and disappointments) by watching for my email reminders and taking a quick five-minute break to complete the two attached forms. Then, click on the link to reserve your hotel room. Not only does this ensure that your hotel and activities are booked, but once I have your registration, I won’t bother you about it until our next meeting. And the fewer emails, the better, right?!
4. Read the agenda.
Your 20 Group moderator (or, in some cases, your coordinator) will send you the meeting agenda before your first day. The agenda is the road map for your 20 Group meeting, and it is critical that you open and review it immediately. Look for parts that are bolded or bolded AND red. These are the most important items, and you will need to set aside an hour or so to prepare these items before your next meeting.
Every group is different, so for the sake of simplicity, I’ll just say that everyone has some assignment to complete before their first meeting day. Make sure you get it done, so you can get the most from the time you have with your peers and moderator.
5. Write your commitments.
Remember those commitments I was talking about earlier? Well, we’ve come full circle! If you write your commitments down in the meeting room (or even better, go to the NCM Member Website and type them into our new online form), please send them to your moderator or coordinator. We will type them into a nice, tidy sheet that you can print and hang on your office wall, making it easier to complete Item 1, above, in time for the next meeting.
What’s my point in sharing these five action items? My number one goal is for you to have a great experience with us. Each NCM 20 Group is a partnership between the member, you, and NCM—aka me and a bunch of other cool people who work together in Kansas City. Our collaboration can’t succeed if we don’t all put in our best effort. I promise to do my part and, if you do the five items above, you’ll reap the benefits from doing yours!