Meetings as the infrastructure of a movement

Christoph Haug's research is blunt: movements live and die by their meeting practices. Treat meetings as the core product of your organizing, not as a side cost.

Haug (2013) studied dozens of movement organizations and found that the ones that lasted had distinctive meeting practices: regular cadence, clear roles, written agendas circulated in advance, explicit decision-making methods, and minutes that members could reread. The ones that collapsed had vibes.

Your base will only be as strong as the meetings you run. If meetings feel like compulsory attendance, your base attends until they don't. If meetings feel like a place where people are seen, decisions are made together, and leaders are visibly developed, your base shows up even when it's hard.

Three commitments that matter: (1) a predictable monthly cadence (third Tuesday at 7pm beats 'soon'); (2) rotating roles — facilitator, notetaker, timekeeper, vibes-checker — that are explicitly used to train members into capacity; (3) decisions actually made in the meeting, not announced afterward.