How to Run an Update Meeting

This document provides a template for conducting an update meeting with your student group. While you are encouraged to use your own judgment and tools, this guide outlines some effective practices.

There are two documents that need to be figured out during this meeting: the evaluation of the previous week (“Progress Report”) and what students are expected to do the next week (“Planning Document”). You should leverage these documents to organize and frame your meetings.

Goals of the Meeting

The weekly meeting aims to:

1. Have each student report on the work completed in the past week.
2. Assign a specific task to each student for the coming week.
3. Address any outstanding issues, blockers, or problems.

Before the Meeting

• Review Reports: Examine the latest Planning and Progress documents on Canvas. This will help you understand what the students were expected to accomplish in the past week versus what they actually did.
• Project Direction: Take a moment to consider the project’s direction. Think about the next steps you would take if you were directly involved in the project work.

Example Meeting Agenda

Establishing a consistent process for the meetings is crucial. The most successful projects adhere to a regular format where each student clearly and specifically understands their responsibilities for the upcoming week.

1. Preparation:
   • Share your screen for transparency.
   • Have the GitHub repository, weekly reports, and a text editor for notes ready.
   • Open the Progress Report from last week
2. Goal Reminder:
   • Remind students of the high level goal of the project. Even repeating the same two-ish sentences per week is useful.
3. Student Updates (10-15 minutes):
   • Ask each student to provide a concise update on their assigned task (<2 minutes per student)
   • Encourage brevity and focus; avoid lengthy discussions during updates.
   • Ensure work products are submitted, preferably in a pull request.
   • Table any issues for later discussion.
   • Be comfortable cutting students off to make sure that everyone gives their update.
4. Discussion (30 minutes): Talk through any broader issues, concerns, project direction , etc.
5. Task Assignment (10-15 minutes): Assign tasks to individual students to ensure clear responsibility and progress. Avoid assigning the same task to multiple students.

Before the Meeting Ends

1. Confirm that students are clear about their tasks for the next week.
2. Finalize any meetings with external clients, ensuring they are scheduled properly with necessary Zoom links.

Lessons Learned

• Note-Taking: Students often forget their assignments post-meeting. Taking notes and sharing them in the Slack channel can be very helpful for both you and the students. I have gotten in the habit of just taking notes myself and sharing them rather than relying on students to do it. Even after cajoling, students fail to prioritize note-taking.
• Task Assignment: Assign tasks to only one student. If a task is large, break it into smaller, distinct parts.
• Logistical Follow-ups: Address logistical matters during the meeting. Be cautious about relying on students who say, “I’ll get back to you.” They almost never do.