Managing meeting
In every organization, meeting are essential tool of planning, discussing, passing information and providing direction in an organization. However, not all convene meeting end up being successful. This paper discuss the key essential that are required to conduct successful meeting in organization environment
1.1 Develop agenda in line with stated meeting purpose
According to (Liraz, 2013), meeting is an assembly of people who convene together, to discuss certain agenda for a common purpose. From the definition given by (Liraz, 2013), it is clear that Agenda are key ingredient in every meeting. The important of agenda in meeting is further emphasized by (Jay, 1976)who state that clearly stated agenda increases the chance of conducting effective meeting. What exactly do we mean by agenda? These are items of importance that will be discussed in meeting (Jay, 1976). For instance, in a corporate environment an example of agenda may be Opening of new Branch, proving participant information about new regulation, parental leave, organization performance etc. The chairperson of the meeting should at all time ensure the agenda of the meeting are clearly stated and well know by the participants before the meeting. During the meeting, the chairperson should introduce each agenda and ensure appropriate time is spent discussing it before moving on to the next item. Due to the importance agenda serve in the meeting, the chairperson of the meeting should prepare them properly. The agenda can be generated by the chairperson and in some meeting it can be generated by participants. Regardless of who generated the agenda, the chairperson should ensure that all agenda included in the final list to be discussed during the meeting are in line with the purpose of the meeting. For instance, if the purpose of the meeting is to inform participant, the agenda should be informative. If the meeting purpose is to discuss certain issue affecting the organization, the agenda should generate the relevant discussion (Liraz, 2013).
1.2 Ensure style and structure of meeting are appropriate to its purpose
In order for a meeting to be successful, it style and structure must meet it purpose. There are two most common style and structure of a meeting. These include statutory meeting and non-statutory meeting/special meeting. Statutory meeting are those whose conduction is guided by law, more specifically the Australia Corporation law Act 2001. A good example is Annual general meeting (AGM). The purpose of statutory meeting is to ensure compliance with law as far governance of an organization is concerned (Liraz, 2013). For instance, the laws require the corporation to conduct annual general meeting every six month in order to bring together shareholders, employees and management of organization together to discuss issues relating to organization performance. As the chairperson, it is vital to ensure that style and structure of meeting help to serve the purpose of the meeting. In case of statutory meeting, the meeting should be highly formal and conducted according to the guideline contained in corporate law Act 2011. For instance, the notice of the meeting should be sent at least two week prior to the meeting and the chair person should follow the agenda of the meeting as contained in the law. On the other hard special meeting are those conducted to discuss matter affecting the operation of the organization? These meeting are usually conducted not to serve any legal compliance but to solve problem, pass inform, generate idea and discuss issues affecting organization. They are less formal though should be conducted according to organization requirement. The notice for this kind of meeting should be sent at least one week before the meeting. Only agenda of the meeting should be discussed. When chairing these kinds of meeting it is important to ensure it purpose are achieve.
1.3 Identify meeting participants and notify them in accordance with organisational procedures
For meeting to be effective, the participants must be relevant to the purposes of the meeting. As noted by (KickPatrick, 2006), in some cases, a meeting may be rendered invalid due to presence of person who were not entitled to be in that meeting. It is therefore important for the chairperson to identify and moreover notify all the relevant participants about a forthcoming meeting. In an organization setting, the relevant participants in a meeting depend with the type of the meeting. For instance, if it is an Annual general meeting, the participants should be shareholders, organization employees and management (Board of directors). For a board meeting, the participants should be director of the organization only. For a committee meeting, the participants should be only those staffs that are part of the team. For a managerial meeting, the participants should be person with managerial position in the organization. For staff meeting, participant should be staffs (KickPatrick, 2006). Once the participants are identified, they should be notified about the upcoming meeting. There are so many ways notify participants, but the most recommended mean of notifying them is through formal notice. Notice should state the type of meeting it is, the time, day and venue where the meeting will be conducted (Jay, 1976). It is also a good practice to attach the agenda of the meeting on the notice so as to allow the participants enough time to thinks through all the items and prepare them for a good discussion (CGA, 2012). It is always advisable to ensure that notice of a meeting is sent to the participant as earliest as possible more preferably two week before the meeting or according to other timeline as set out in organization policies and procedure.
1.4 Confirm meeting arrangements in accordance with requirements of meeting
In order to facilitate successful meeting, the chairperson must ensure proper preparation and arrangement for the meeting take place. There are several things that need to be prepared in advance. These include notice of the meeting, venue, paper works, technology catering and accommodation. Preparing the notice of meeting should be the first meeting arrangement to be done. Notice is formal document that is used to communicate to the meeting participants about forthcoming meeting, it purpose, date it will be held, time and date as well as venue where it will take place (Jay, 1976) If there is any papers works that will be needed in the meeting, the works should be done in advance. For instance, in annual general meeting, it expected that shareholder will need to know about company financial performance. Such record should be prepared well in advance (CGA, 2012). The venue of the meeting needs to be prepared in advance. It is the role of the chairperson together with the secretary to ensure the meeting venue is well in order. The chairperson should check the sitting arrangement of the venue. A good sitting arrangement should facilitate for free movement of people. Secondly, the sitting arrangement need to be done in a ways that all participants will be able engage with each other (Jay, 1976). The chairperson so also checks to see that all technology such as teleconference, microphone, projector etc, to be used in the meeting is well installed and functioning. He should also ensure a backup plan is also in place just in case something when wrong (Liraz, 2013). If there will be food and refreshment for the participants, there chair person should ensure catering arrangement are done. If an outside catering services is used. The chairperson should ensure such food and refreshment are availed at the right time. He /she should get in touch with service provider to ensure they know what is required and the time schedule of the meeting so that food and refreshment can be served at the right time (Jay, 1976).
1.5 Despatch meeting papers to participants within designated timelines
When preparing for the meeting, it is important to ensure that all the necessary meeting papers are dispatched to the participants at the right. These papers may include Notice of the meeting, agenda, minute of previous meeting and any other papers that would help the participants prepare well in advance. The right time to dispatch the paper depends on the prevailing situation and type of meeting. If a meeting is to be convene urgently to due issues that might have arises, the papers should be sent as soon as the need for the meeting arises (Liraz, 2013). On the other hand, for formal meeting such as annual general meeting, the law requires papers such as notice and any accompanying papers to be sent to the participants at least two week before the meeting ( Australian institute of company director, 2016). To ensure meeting papers are dispatched and received by the participants on the right time, the chairperson should ensure there is adequate time to prepare the papers. He/she should also chose the right mean of communication to ensure the papers are received without any delay or inconvenience. Some of the mean to dispatch the notice that should be considered include email, courier, post and hand delivery. However, the choice made by the chairperson on the mean to use should be based on organization policies and procedures.
2.1 Chair meetings in accordance with organisational requirements, agreed conventions for type of meeting and legal and ethical requirements
The success of a meeting largely depend with it leadership. The chairperson must therefore provide good leadership in order to ensure the meeting is conducted in adherence to organization requirement, agreed convention and ethical and legal requirement of a meeting. Every organization has its own constitution that spelt out how operation including conducting meeting is done. The chairperson should ensure they understand the organization constitution as far as conducting meeting is concerned. He/she should then chair the meeting in accordance with those requirements. In case statutory meeting such as those outlined in corporate act 2001, the chairperson should ensure all the requirements as stipulated in the law are met. These requirements normally touch on frequency of conducting the meeting, the participants to the meeting and the agenda of the meeting. In some case, the meeting participants may reach an agreement about various issues affecting the meeting. For instance, they may reach an agreement about the rules and standing order of the meeting, minimum quorum, and time limit for every speaker etc. The chairperson should ensure that such agreed conventions are adhered to by all participants during meeting. To ensure that the meeting is conducted in adherences to the organization requirement, agreed convention and legal requirement, the chairperson must play the following role. The leadership role The chairperson should play the leadership role by • Articulating the vision of the group/meeting
• Providing direction i.e. facilitating the meeting activities Gatekeeper role
• The chairperson should ensure play the gatekeeper role by • Protecting the interest of the minority • Ensuring no individual dominant the discussion • Motivating contribution by everybody • Dealing with jokers • Empowering and supporting the nervous person to talk and make their contribution • Dealing with any conflict Administrator role • Ensure meeting notice is prepared and sent according to the set timeline • Ensure minute is well written, distributed and stored • Ensure all other necessary paper work are met • Ensure the venue for meeting, stationery needed and any refreshment or meal for participant is well prepared in advance • Ensuring meeting adhere to the set deadline, and standards (Griffins & Juchau, 2010)
2.2 Conduct meetings to ensure they are focused time efficient and achieve the required outcomes
The main objective of conducting a meeting is to achieve certain outcomes. These outcomes cannot be achieved if the discussion of the meeting lacks direction. As pointed out by (Schwartzman, 1998), one of the reasons why most meeting fails to achieve their objective is due to wastage of time through discussion of irrelevant issues. As chairperson, it is therefore vital to ensure time is properly managed in order to achieve the required outcome. This can be done by arranging all the agendas in term of importance and allocate appropriate time for discussion on every item on the agenda list. The chairperson should introduce every item on the agenda list and ensure appropriate time is spending discussing it. Once the item has been fully discussed and consensus reached, the next item should be introduced as they appear in the agenda list. In case where it becomes hard to reach an agreement, the item in question should be subjected to voting. The choice of the majority should become the decision of the group. The chairperson should supervise the voting process, count the vote and announce the result. In case a tied occur, the chairperson should cast his/her vote to break the tie (KickPatrick, 2006).
2.3 Ensure meeting facilitation enables participation, discussion, problem solving and resolution of issues
In order for health discussion to take place, good decision to be made and resolution of issue to be agreed on, there must be proper facilitation. This role should be played by the chairperson. There are several ways in which the chairperson can facilitate the meeting activities. To start with, they clarify all the issues that are not clear to the participants. Secondly, they should help other people improve their understanding of issue being discussion. Most of people fail to be active participants in meeting due to lack of proper understanding of issues being discussed. Therefore helping others understand their issues encourage participation. Thirdly, the chairperson should make request. This forces participants to open up. Fourthly, chairperson should invite different opinion to those of speaker or event question certain thinking. Furthermore, they should lay each agenda on the table and give everyone willing to make contribution to do so (Liraz, 2013). In some cases, the discussion may become heated and personalized to an external that participant start attacking other with words. The chairperson needs to intervene in such scenario to calm the situation to ensure discussion run on smoothly. If conflict arises, the chairperson should arbitrate and ensure such conflicts are resolves amicably (Liraz, 2013).
2.4 Brief minute-taker on method for recording meeting notes in accordance with organisational requirements and conventions for type of meeting
One of the most important documents in every meeting is the minute. Minute are document that contained detail of how a particular meeting went on and the resolution that was made (Griffins & Juchau, 2010). It is usually prepared after every meeting. However, during the meeting the minute –taker is required to summarize the key issues arising from of the meeting proceed which are to be used later in preparation of the minute. It should be noted that once minute have been written and approved by the chairperson, it cannot be altered ( Chartered secretaries Australia, 2013). Therefore, the care taker should be very skilful in summarizing the proceeding and when preparing the minute. The chairperson should ensure that the minute-taker is well advice on how to make take brief summary during meeting proceeding and how to write the minute. If the minute-taker lack proper knowledge and skills on how to take brief summary, there meeting will lack proper record keeping. This may contravene organization requirement as well as legislative requires in case of statutory meeting ( Chartered secretaries Australia, 2013).
3.1 Check transcribed meeting notes to ensure they reflect a true and accurate record of the meeting and are formatted in accordance with organisational procedures and meeting conventions
One important quality of a minute is that it should be accurate. It should reflect the facts about meeting proceeding. This does not however mean that every word said during in the meeting should be written. Only the basic of the meeting should be included. These should include the date, time and venue where meeting took place, members present and absent from the meeting, all the agenda that was discussed and the agreement that was reached. As a minute taker, it is therefore crucial to ensure the meeting proceedings are well followed and facts and unfolding event well noted down in writing. This will facilitate writing of an accurate minute. (KickPatrick, 2006) When writing the minute, the minute-takers should follow the brief summary they had prepared during the meeting. They should also ensure that the minute is written using grammatically correct grammar and sentence structure. Furthermore, the minute should be written suing the appropriate format. The best format to follow when writing minute should be as follow 1) Start with the title of the meeting, date, time and venue where it was held. For instance.
THIS IS A MINUTE FOR BOARD OF DIRECTOR MEETIN OF XYZ R+THA WAS HELD IN BOARD ROOM ON 29/2/2016 at 11; 001m
2) Name of participant presence
3) Apology for absenteeism-here the minute take should write the apology that was sent to the meeting by member who was unable to attend. They must capture the name of the person and the reason they gave for not having attended the meeting. For instance- Mr James sent his apology for failing to attend the minute as he was out of the country on an official tour to represent the company in conference held in Africa..............
4) Previous minute- This section should be written information concerning last meeting’s minute. It should state who read it and whether it was approved or rejected by the member as true record of previous meeting
5) Matter arising- This section contain all the issues that rose during the previous meeting but were not concluded. The minute-taker should write how they were concluded in the current meeting and the resolution reached.
6) Summary of the key item discussed.- this section contained summary of all the key agenda that was discussed in the current meeting. They should be summarised according to the order in which they were discussed, The resolution or unfolding event that occurred during the discussion of every time should be capture for instance
Agenda No 1: Paternity leave The issue of paternity leave for all male employees were introduced by the chairman. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed that all male employees should be allowed to take 3 week paternity leave. 7) After all item that was discussed and concluded are fully summarised, matter that arisen but were not fully discussed as they were not in the main agenda should be highlighted. 8) The date of the next meeting, as well as time and venue should be included in this section 9) The time that meeting closed should also be noted (KickPatrick, 2006).
3.2 Distribute and store minutes and other follow up documentation within designated timelines, and according to organisational requirements
Minute are important tool of communication in an organization. They help managers and staffs know the decision that was reached in order to implement them. It is therefore crucial to prepared and distributes it to all the relevant persons for implementation of decision reached to take place. Delay in distributing the minute can cause confusion among staffs due to inadequacy of information. This can in turn tamper with the organization operation leading to poor services or poor performance. It should thereby be distribute at the right time. The right time to do so depended with each organization. The policies and procedure of the organization should therefore be followed (Liraz, 2013). Due to the importance minute serve, it should be preserved to be used in future. There are various reasons as to why it should be store. One, if a disagreement occurs in future about a certain issues, the minute can be a good point of reference. Secondly, under the corporate law 2001, organizations are required to maintain record of minute of all the statutory/formal meeting that was conducted such as annual General meeting (AGM) ( Australian institute of company director, 2016). While storing the minute and any other document relevant to a meeting, softcopy is the most appropriate. A computer folder should be open, named appropriately, and the content of minute save their in. It is cheap to do so as well as time saving. However, for security reason, a hard copy also needs to be maintained. While storing the file, it is important that organization requirement as contained in it policies and procedure are followed.
3.3 Report outcomes of meetings as required, within designated timelines
The outcome of every meeting should be reported to the relevant person. Each organization usually has it preferred timeline for doing so. It is therefore important to consult organization policies and procedure when reporting the meeting outcome (KickPatrick, 2006). Reporting the outcome of the meeting start by preparing the Meeting’s minute. It should then be sent to all relevant persons. There are several ways in which the meeting outcome can be report. This includes email, normal post, and courier or hand delivery. Regardless of the method used, care must be taken to ensure unnecessary delay does not occur which may hinder the timeline for reporting the outcome ( Chartered secretaries Australia, 2013). When reporting the meeting outcome. If the report of the meeting outcome falls in the wrong hard, it can be used against the organization. For instance, competitor can know the secret of the organization hence taking that opportunity against the employers (KickPatrick, 2006) Conclusion This paper has examined what it takes to conduct effective meeting an organization. It is clear from it finding that successful meeting required proper preparation by preparing meeting notice, Agenda and other supporting document. To increase the change of conducting the meeting effectively every step in planning and conducting the meeting should be guided by organization and legislative requirement where applicable. It has been found out that minute is an essential part of every meeting. It helps keep official record of meeting proceeding. Finally the role played by chairperson and secretary are essential for conducting effective meeting