You might wish a family meeting could simply “happen.” No preparation. Let me assure you: that’s a highly unlikely scenario. So how do you prepare?

Here’s what I did in preparation for our family’s first meetings this past week.

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Beginning in 2006, when we realized all the kids were grown up, they were beginning to have kids of their own, and our youngest was off at college most of the year, we also woke up to the fact that if we were to spend any significant time with one another, we had to be purposeful about it. And so we set aside a week simply to do “fun things” together–our family’s version of a goodly portion of the Party Tithe.

So in 2006, we made arrangements to see and do and experience all the “best of the best” available in the extended Denver metro area the week before Christmas. Last year, we took the Thanksgiving Week to visit Florence, Italy, together as a family. And this year, Maui, Hawaii. This year’s Family Fun Week took place last week.

Our eldest daughter, seems to be specially gifted in organizing activities and, therefore, has served, all three years, as our unofficial but undoubted “family travel bureau and Family Fun Week organizer.” Several weeks ago, I suddenly realized these Family Fun Weeks could–and, my opinion, should–provide a great opportunity for us to meet together more formally as a family. So I told Amy I wanted to hold some family meetings. She graciously granted me permission to set up three meetings over the course of the week.

In preparation for the meetings, I sent several e-mails to the kids, along with a bunch of documents I prepared from some of the things I’ve been reading. The first one was titled “Preparation for Family Fun Week Family Meetings.” I sent it on Monday the 17th: Read the rest of this entry »