askchapo

Meeting minutes, perhaps?

Maybe do a briefing on what exactly you're trying to accomplish at any given meeting and lay down that we only have so much time to meet? Like, I highly doubt they're being intentionally disruptive so just making them aware of that fact might do something.

I was in an organization previously that had different hand signals for the audience to give a speaker if they were droning on too long. You'd put your arm across the top of your head if they were going on a tangent and raise an arm with a limp hand if they were beating a dead horse.

I took a course on social organizing. And every time a question like this was asked (how do we convince x....) I would try and come up with a clever way of doing it. Then the instructor would provide several examples of what you might say and they were all direct.

So here's what you could do:

Tell them to shut the fuck up and let someone else talk.

I'll add to this: Trying to be nice to people who are disruptive in an organization, or people you dislike for some reason, will undermine the cause/organizing/institution etc. It is far better to personally deal with issues rather than let them fester and lead to resentment.

That doesn't mean kick someone out (necessarily), but confront them and do the uncomfortable thing. We have power through numbers, which means all our efforts are necessarily social.

It will be hard, it will suck, you might even need to go home and have a cry afterwards. But you, your organization, and your comrades will form stronger bonds, and experience far more wins than are otherwise possible.

One of two methods, depending on the meeting, the constituency, etc.:

• Progressive stack - A queue of speakers is kept, but people who haven't spoken yet are prioritized, and non-cis/-het/-white/-male people may also be bumped in priority.
• Rounds - Go around the room and give everyone in turn a chance to speak (or pass). This can be great for people who are normally hesitant to speak up or put themselves on the queue, while offering the no-pressure chance to pass if they really don't want to speak.

Plus sometimes a person who volunteers to do temperature checks, remind people if they are taking inordinate amounts of time or are simply repeating stuff that's already been said, etc. Depending on the dynamics of the meeting (e.g. when most people form a well-knit group who trusts each other to do well) this might be handled collectively instead of with people in the particular role.