Too often people have the excuse of “African Timers”. This is just to allow for their disregard to allocated times for things to happen, hence a lot of time is wasted and often agendas may not be adequately covered, causing some chamas and groups to stagnate. In order to have all your meetings effective and productive, you could follow the tips below;
1.    Start on time:
Often members will delay on purpose knowing they will not miss anything, and there will not be any consequences on them. For this reason, some chamas have adopted a fine for late comers. This shows the seriousness of the meetings and forces each member to be time conscious. Also, they have to keep tabs on the time and end the meeting when it had been set for.
2.    Set out the agenda:
On the Digichama platform you can send all your members an email or sms outlining the purpose of the meeting, the time it will take and what will be required of the members. In this way, all come prepared and focused to have a clear and productive discussion.
3.    Time stamp the discussion agendas:
This ensures that the urgent matters in the agenda are covered first and members can even organize their days better know the set time for the meeting to end. It entails members being focused on the issues that are at hand fast.
4.    Member participation:
By giving the members the agenda beforehand, they can adequately prepare for the meeting for a proper productive discussion. In all the agenda laid out, the meeting facilitators should allocate some minutes for an open floor discussion session with the members. This makes them feel heard and can even bring the chama goals closer and faster when people put their heads together. This ensures there aren’t many interruptions as members know there is allocated time for open discussions.
5.    Acton plan:
The last bit of your meeting, the secretary needs to summarize what was discussed, the action plans supposed to be taken before the next meeting and the people in charge of said action plans. This keeps the members in check and the people responsible accountable as these will be the opening agenda for the next meeting. It also ensures progress and growth for your group.