From our experience at the Brit-Magyar bilingual school open meeting with parents, here a 9 great ways to stay one step ahead.
1. Arrive at the meeting 5 minutes early
Whether you are hosting the meeting or are a participant, early arrivals have the opportunity to make small talk to the rest of the group. This helps you to establish yourself and gain extra one to one information before the meeting starts.
2. Turn your video on
You want to make as big an impact as possible and you want to be sure that your questions are heard. Be visible throughout. Don’t worry too much about your appearance. Everybody knows that you will probably be talking from home. Participants that are not seen can too easily be forgotten.
3. Keep mute turned on
Unless you want to say something, its best that you keep mute turned on. In that way background noise does not interfere with the rest of the group. We won’t hear your cat or dog or your son yelling out from the neighbouring room “ I am hungry, what’s for dinner?”
4. Don’t be embarrassed about technical problems
These problems need to get fixed at the start of a meeting, otherwise you all suffer. At a recent meeting we interrupted the School Director after the first minute because his sound quality was horrible. It took him a minute to switch laptops. The meeting was stopped but everybody understood and appreciated that the problem was solved.
5. Be natural, be animated
Although you are looking into a screen, everybody can see you. Your body language is still visible, so use it to communicate. Nod in agreement ( or disagreement), laugh, use hand gestures. This helps the rest of the group understand your thoughts and feelings on what is being discussed.
6. Invite guests
If you are on screen and your young child or husband ( many women think they are the same!) join you on screen, that’s great. The rest of the group will already start to learn more about you, by seeing your family with you.
7. Conversations, not presentations
A group meeting is always a lot more energetic and fun if it is structured around asking questions. If you lead the meeting, then you start this process but if you are a participant, interrupt and ask questions. You will find the rest of the group and the host will be relieved that he/she does not have to do all the talking!
8. Be brave, use humour
If something funny occurs to you, share it with the group. Humour breaks the ice and brings people together. At a recent meeting when our school director used his wife’s laptop, the name on the screen was shown as “Erika”. We called him Erika for the rest of the meeting. I won’t tell you what he called me after the meeting!
9. An online meeting is still a meeting
Make sure you provide or know the agenda and the purpose of the meeting. You will also want to know how long it will run for. If the host does not let you know, ask. You have other things to do and need to plan your time.
Brit-Magyar school is currently accepting registrations for the September 2020 school year.
