participation and at the same time people must leave it with a
feeling of progress. To do this requires leadership and plan-
ning. The set of steps outlined above are one form of
meeting plan. They are intended as a guide to participation,
not as a block to it. Your attitude can help communicate this
intention.

One key-point: the first things to agree upon in a Council

meeting are:

(a) What system will be followed in order to make the
meeting effective;

(b) Who will be responsible for seeing to it that the system is
followed. (This may be decided by the Chairman, or he
may seek volunteers).

While the Chairman will be the logical person to suggest and con-

trol the process of the meeting, some chairmen prefer to appoint a

special ‘Process Controller’ (who might be a line employee) to help

keep the meeting on track. This has the advantage of reducing any
seeming arbitrariness on the Chairman’s part when people wander
from the orderly process and have to be called back into line.

Other aids to Council’s Success
Council Members need to feel that they are involved in serious
business. They need to have their business formalised and treated
with a certain degree of seriousness and decorum.
To achieve this it is advisable to adopt the following
procedures:
(i) Soon after a Council Election —provide every member with
a copy of Presidential Circular No. 1 of 1970. Have both
Swabhili, and English copies distributed to ensure total un-
derstanding of their ‘constitutional’ document by every
member.

(ii) Provide every member with a file or folder in which every
document, correspondence etc. relating to Council af-
fairs should be filed. This helps the members to get bet-
ter organised and to have all reference documents at
hand during meetings. It also ensures that Council
documents are not scattered all over or lost.

(iii) Every member should be notified in writing of the date,
time and place of every meeling. Usually two weeks or

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