Quick Morning Meeting: Getting Started

The Series: Elements of Planning and Coordinating Successful Activities
2. Quick Morning Meeting: Getting Started

9:30 is the time we start our quick morning powwow that is the second important factor to lead us to successful activities. Every morning before our clients arrive on their vans is filled with a quiet and tranquil moment at our Day Care Center. Every staff member is surrounded by a calm atmosphere before our clients’ arrival.

Generally, communication among staff members is the most significant factor in any team setting. In order to be an effective and efficient team player, each staff member communicates frequently, listens to other team players actively, and builds trustful work relationship consciously. Respectful and professional manner also need to be emphasized. As well as being a competent team player, we are also required to be individual decision makers who are confident to make prompt decisions for our clients.

Our typical morning meeting includes the followings:

a. General Daily Schedule
-Daily schedule, including a timeline, lunch break, and staffing, need to be clear as the time frame tells us how we work efficiently and take care of our clients safely.
-30 minutes lunch break at our Day Care Center needs to be taken when we work over 6 hours. This must depend on every center and contract. Staffing needs to be discussed.
-Who is working and how long? Regular staff members who work everyday know the daily routine, timeline, and knowledge about every client. On the other hand, on-call staff members who come to help us when we need them can follow the routine and work very well; however, when it comes to experience and knowledge about clients, it sometimes becomes crucial and they tend to need more instructions.

b. Specific Assignments
-Once staff members are notified a daily schedule in general every morning, then specific assignments that includes toileting, news and exercise, kitchen duties, and activities are distributed.
-When we share our assignments, we use the assignment list that has every category mentioned above and the activities coordinator fill in staff members’ names next to each assignment. Specifically for toileting, it gets complicated as every client has his/her habit and custom. Their toileting habits, frequency, and levels of care, are also considered.
-It is very important to know as activities professionals that certain clients tend to use the bathroom more frequently than others due to specific reasons or just find comfort and companionship (was discussed in “Going in Pairs” on 9/14/09/ by Thia).
-In order to distribute each assignment equally, the activities coordinator needs to pay an extra attention to combination of total clients’ numbers of toileting and other assignments (news, exercise, or kitchen duty).

c. Entertainments, Guests, Events, Volunteers
-Who are coming today for us besides staff members and clients? Entertainers to play music? Family members to visit their loved ones? Volunteer to help us out? Special party? Potential clients to visit and check us out? All these extra guests who don’t have a contact with our clients regularly need to be clarified in the morning meeting due to safety, and liability, confidentiality for our clients and ourselves.
-Every staff member is required to know who comes and goes. Most importantly, we verify guests identity by asking them to introduce us (more safely, with their IDs).

d. Clients’ Updates
-Clients’ updates consist of several aspects, including physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social changes, medication, families’ concerns, and transportation issues. We, as multi-task activities specialists, notice our clients’ slightest change in the above perspectives. We fill ourselves in each other by exchanging own observations on each client.
-It is fundamental to be extra sensitive towards specific clients who show significant changes or rapid decline in short term.
-These drastic changes are reported to the families, doctors, and/or designated third parties (e.g., social workers)

e. Future Activities Ideas/Suggestions
-Last but not least, future activities ideas will be discussed and shared. The most exciting part of our job is to carry out unique and meaningful activities. (Activities related topics will be discussed in detail later.)

Our morning meeting is just our starting point where no one knows what will happen. However, once we all are on the same page respectfully, our day will go smoothly with good amount of communication.