Setting your family meeting structure

Nothing is wrong with the living room for an annual family business meeting if you're talking about your immediate family, but consider these guidelines as your business evolves:

- Always have a formal agenda that all participating memebrs contribute to in advance.  As in any business meeting, you should be prepared with facts and exhibits, if necessary.  Distribute this agenda before the meeting so everyone can review it.

- Designate a facilitator for the meeting - in small groups, the responsibility can move around (it's good training for the kids), but as the group gets larger, you may want to work with a professional facilitator or someone who can manage the event without a stake in it. 

- Appoint someone to act as the meeting secretary to keep a running history of discussion in these meetings.

- Make it a priority to increase the growth and value of the company, and devote at least part of the meeting to report on how that's going.

- Set ground rules about anger and conflict, in family businesses, emotions run high, and unchecked emotion in family meetings can derail other critical business.

- As more family memebrs join the business, consider neutral territory if doing so makes the crowd more comfortable and facilitates discussion.