16.2 Meeting Preparation

A meeting, like a problem-solving group, needs a clear purpose statement. The specific goal for the specific meeting will clearly relate to the overall goal of the group or committee. Determining your purpose is central to an effective meeting, whereas getting together just for the sake of it is a party, not a meeting. Standing meetings—i.e., meetings held regularly at a certain time by the same group—tend to become time-wasters because they require participation of personnel who may have no relevance to the topics proposed. Standing meetings are also money-wasters when you’re paying employees an hourly rate to listen and not contribute to a discussion that has nothing to do with them and won’t improve their work in any way—indeed, it just prevents them from accomplishing their own work for an hour or two. In their case, the benefits of information sharing can be better achieved by sending them the minutes (a written summary of the meeting’s discussion).

Similarly, if the need for a meeting arises, do not rush into it without planning. A poorly planned meeting announced at the last minute is sure to waste time. People may be unable to change their schedules, may fail to attend, or may impede the progress and discussion of the group because of their absence. Those who attend may feel hindered because they needed more time to prepare and present comprehensive results to the group or committee.

If a meeting is necessary, and a clear purpose can be articulated, then you’ll need to decide how and where to meet. With the option of web conferencing, distance is no longer an obstacle to participation, but meeting in person has many advantages over any technological mediation. People communicate both verbally and nonverbally—i.e., with facial expressions, eye contact, hand gestures, head nodding or head shaking, and posture. These subtleties of communication can be key to determining how group members really feel about an issue or question. Meeting in real time can be important, too, as all group members have the benefit of receiving and discussing new information at the same time. For purposes of our present discussion, we will focus on meetings taking place face to face in real time.

The Agenda

The blueprint for any meeting is the agenda document. It contains the following:

1. The time, date, location, list of participants, purpose statement, call to order identifying the person chairing or leading the meeting
2. Introductions if there is even one new participant in the group
3. Roll call listing the participants expected, which can be silently checked off by the participant in charge of recording minutes; a note is made beside the name of any absentees so that a list of actual participants is ready for the minutes
4. Approval of the minutes, where corrections to the previous meeting’s minutes (sent out soon after the previous meeting) are suggested by participants who were there before the minutes are approved by the group for official archiving
5. Old business for discussing any issues left unresolved (“tabled”) in the previous meeting
6. New business listing topics for discussion in order of priority so that the most important issues can be dealt with first so that items of lesser importance don’t push the important ones off the agenda and into the next meeting if the lesser items end up taking longer than expected
   • The expected length of time is indicated for each item, with contentious items getting extra time to accommodate the depth of discussion expected.
   • Items may include proposals for new initiatives, brief presentations reporting on recent developments or existing initiatives, and discussions about recent or upcoming developments
   • Any preparatory work is indicated such as readings (e.g., reports that will be discussed) or reports that must be presented by individuals.
7. Adjournment for discussing when the next meeting shall take place

Activity 16.1 provides an example of a meeting agenda.

^{Activity 16.1 | Meeting Agenda}

Writing the agenda requires soliciting information from the expected participants a couple of weeks in advance to work out scheduling and content details. Once the details are worked out, the agenda should be sent a week in advance to give participants time to do any preparatory reading (e.g., the previous meeting’s minutes, which often accompany the agenda) or report writing.

Inviting participants via email has become increasingly common across business and industry. Software programs like Microsoft Outlook allow you to initiate a meeting request and receive an “accept” or “decline” response that integrates with your calendar to make the invitation process organized and straightforward. So that you don’t get most participants declining an invitation because they are previously booked at the meeting time you’ve pitched, web apps like Doodle help determine the best time to meet by emailing the required participants a selection of times and determining what works best for all. Your Outlook calendar then allows you to see what meetings and other commitments you have throughout your day to keep you on track.

If you are responsible for the room reservation, confirm it a week or two before the meeting and again the day before the meeting. Redundancy in the confirmation process can help eliminate a double-booking where two meetings are scheduled at the same time in the same place. If the meeting requires technology such as a projector for laptops to plug into or a web conferencing screen or telephone, confirm their reservation at the same time as you confirm the room reservation. Always personally inspect the room and test these systems prior to the meeting. There is nothing more embarrassing than introducing a high-profile speaker, such as the company president, and then finding that the PowerPoint projector is not working properly.