Organizing a Meeting
20 March 2014
Read by 2489 persons
Meetings are a way to share the same level of knowledge on a topic or problem within a group of people and to make collective decisions. Furthermore, decisions made collectively, with representatives from the different entities involved, will be much more easily accepted by everyone.
However, meetings are "time-consuming" and should therefore be as short as possible and conducted efficiently, in order to lead to concrete actions.
Meeting management is the set of actions to be undertaken in order to organize and conduct a meeting under good conditions and to ensure that it has an impact.
This article provides a set of recommendations to help you organize your meetings. At no time are these mandatory prescriptions.
Before the meeting
Purpose of the meeting
First of all, the reason for holding a meeting must be carefully considered in order not to succumb to the pitfalls of "acute meetingitis":
What is the objective of the meeting?
Would a telephone meeting be sufficient?
Would a web conference or virtual classroom meeting (via the internet) suffice?
Scope of the meeting
Number and quality of participants: It is advisable to bring together a small number of participants, in order not to risk making the meeting inefficient. It is also necessary to harmonize the profile of the participants, particularly in terms of technical or political level.
Duration: Ideally, the duration of the meeting should not exceed 2 hours.
Agenda: This is the hourly breakdown of working time into well-formulated topics. It is necessary to correctly time the different topics on the agenda.
Date and room booking
Depending on the number of participants, it is necessary to find a meeting room available on a date when the participants are available. School holiday periods should be avoided as much as possible.
The date of the meeting should be planned at least 15 days
in advance, to allow for the sending of invitations and summonses
to participants within reasonable timeframes.
The room should be chosen according to the following constraints:
Capacity of the room (in terms of seating);
Dimensions and shape of the room (depending on the type of presentation or animation);
Need for internet access;
Presence of computers and audiovisual equipment (video projector).
Informing participants
Distribute the agenda to all participants, specifying in particular the location and the start and end times of the meeting. You may wish to provide a map showing the main amenities (metro, bus stop, train station) near the meeting location.
If possible, and in order to optimize the efficiency of exchanges, a preparatory document, sent beforehand and outlining the context, possibly highlighting some key questions, will allow participants to better prepare their contribution.
Summons: Depending on the company or organization, a summons must be established for staff so that a mission order can be sent to them. These are regulatory constraints to validate staff travel.
Invitation: An invitation should be sent to participants other than company or organization staff.
During the meeting
Round table
A "round table" allows everyone to briefly introduce themselves and thus allows newcomers or external personalities to understand the role of each speaker. It is strongly recommended to ask participants to make a special effort when describing their activity and, in particular, to avoid using acronyms.
Designation of a reporter
It is advisable to "designate a volunteer" for the writing of the minutes. If it is a series of meetings, everyone should be a reporter in turn.
Attendance sheet
For meetings involving people with mission orders, it is necessary to circulate an attendance sheet to allow the financial departments to validate travel expenses. A sample attendance sheet is attached to this document.
Summary of the previous decision record
For the record, if it is a series of meetings, the decisions of the previous meeting can be reviewed, for memory or to follow up on the progress of their implementation.
Reminder of the agenda
Before getting down to business, it may be useful to briefly summarize the agenda for the day, the time allocated to each topic and the speakers.
The important points of the agenda should preferably be addressed at the beginning of the meeting, where concentration is maximum and in order not to risk dealing with them quickly at the end of the meeting.
Making people feel at ease
To put participants at ease, coffee can be served at the beginning of the meeting or simply bottles of water can be distributed. In addition, a properly sized room with a suitable temperature will make a meeting more efficient.
Writing a record of decisions
A "record of decisions", drawn up collectively by all participants, highlights the essential decisions taken during the discussions. The record of decisions should not be purely passive: a person should be designated to implement each action, with a provisional date.
Date of the next meeting
If this is a series of meetings, it may be appropriate to take advantage of the participants' presence to agree on a common date for the next meeting(s).
After the meeting
Writing the minutes
It is strongly recommended to write the minutes "while it's fresh", immediately after the meeting, as the notes taken during the meeting use "short-term memory".
The minutes should include the following points:
Subject of the meeting,
Date of the meeting,
Participants (and apologies),
Agenda,
Summary of each agenda item,
Record of decisions
At a minimum, in the absence of meeting minutes, it is essential to prepare a simple record of decisions.
The meeting minutes have several objectives:
Record decisions
Formalize the work carried out, for example, to allow those who were absent or people not present at the meeting to know the ins and outs.
Capitalize on information, for memory.
Distributing the minutes
The minutes should be distributed to all participants for validation. After a period of about one week, if modification proposals have been made, the final minutes should be sent again to all participants.
Commentcamarche.net
Posted on March 20, 2014.
However, meetings are "time-consuming" and should therefore be as short as possible and conducted efficiently, in order to lead to concrete actions.
Meeting management is the set of actions to be undertaken in order to organize and conduct a meeting under good conditions and to ensure that it has an impact.
This article provides a set of recommendations to help you organize your meetings. At no time are these mandatory prescriptions.
Before the meeting
Purpose of the meeting
First of all, the reason for holding a meeting must be carefully considered in order not to succumb to the pitfalls of "acute meetingitis":
What is the objective of the meeting?
Would a telephone meeting be sufficient?
Would a web conference or virtual classroom meeting (via the internet) suffice?
Scope of the meeting
Number and quality of participants: It is advisable to bring together a small number of participants, in order not to risk making the meeting inefficient. It is also necessary to harmonize the profile of the participants, particularly in terms of technical or political level.
Duration: Ideally, the duration of the meeting should not exceed 2 hours.
Agenda: This is the hourly breakdown of working time into well-formulated topics. It is necessary to correctly time the different topics on the agenda.
Date and room booking
Depending on the number of participants, it is necessary to find a meeting room available on a date when the participants are available. School holiday periods should be avoided as much as possible.
The date of the meeting should be planned at least 15 days
in advance, to allow for the sending of invitations and summonses
to participants within reasonable timeframes.
The room should be chosen according to the following constraints:
Capacity of the room (in terms of seating);
Dimensions and shape of the room (depending on the type of presentation or animation);
Need for internet access;
Presence of computers and audiovisual equipment (video projector).
Informing participants
Distribute the agenda to all participants, specifying in particular the location and the start and end times of the meeting. You may wish to provide a map showing the main amenities (metro, bus stop, train station) near the meeting location.
If possible, and in order to optimize the efficiency of exchanges, a preparatory document, sent beforehand and outlining the context, possibly highlighting some key questions, will allow participants to better prepare their contribution.
Summons: Depending on the company or organization, a summons must be established for staff so that a mission order can be sent to them. These are regulatory constraints to validate staff travel.
Invitation: An invitation should be sent to participants other than company or organization staff.
During the meeting
Round table
A "round table" allows everyone to briefly introduce themselves and thus allows newcomers or external personalities to understand the role of each speaker. It is strongly recommended to ask participants to make a special effort when describing their activity and, in particular, to avoid using acronyms.
Designation of a reporter
It is advisable to "designate a volunteer" for the writing of the minutes. If it is a series of meetings, everyone should be a reporter in turn.
Attendance sheet
For meetings involving people with mission orders, it is necessary to circulate an attendance sheet to allow the financial departments to validate travel expenses. A sample attendance sheet is attached to this document.
Summary of the previous decision record
For the record, if it is a series of meetings, the decisions of the previous meeting can be reviewed, for memory or to follow up on the progress of their implementation.
Reminder of the agenda
Before getting down to business, it may be useful to briefly summarize the agenda for the day, the time allocated to each topic and the speakers.
The important points of the agenda should preferably be addressed at the beginning of the meeting, where concentration is maximum and in order not to risk dealing with them quickly at the end of the meeting.
Making people feel at ease
To put participants at ease, coffee can be served at the beginning of the meeting or simply bottles of water can be distributed. In addition, a properly sized room with a suitable temperature will make a meeting more efficient.
Writing a record of decisions
A "record of decisions", drawn up collectively by all participants, highlights the essential decisions taken during the discussions. The record of decisions should not be purely passive: a person should be designated to implement each action, with a provisional date.
Date of the next meeting
If this is a series of meetings, it may be appropriate to take advantage of the participants' presence to agree on a common date for the next meeting(s).
After the meeting
Writing the minutes
It is strongly recommended to write the minutes "while it's fresh", immediately after the meeting, as the notes taken during the meeting use "short-term memory".
The minutes should include the following points:
Subject of the meeting,
Date of the meeting,
Participants (and apologies),
Agenda,
Summary of each agenda item,
Record of decisions
At a minimum, in the absence of meeting minutes, it is essential to prepare a simple record of decisions.
The meeting minutes have several objectives:
Record decisions
Formalize the work carried out, for example, to allow those who were absent or people not present at the meeting to know the ins and outs.
Capitalize on information, for memory.
Distributing the minutes
The minutes should be distributed to all participants for validation. After a period of about one week, if modification proposals have been made, the final minutes should be sent again to all participants.
Commentcamarche.net
Posted on March 20, 2014.
