How to make IT.

A typical meeting cycle.

You are asked to chair a meeting. To be successful you should make a detailed plan of what you are going to do and to say, how to behave and react to the audience, how to start and finish the meeting.

Write a detailed description of your activity in a meeting in space below. (a scenario)

Step1.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Step2.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Step3.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Step4.____________________________________________________________________._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Step5._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Step6._______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Step7.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Step8.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Read the following recommendations on how to chair a meeting. Compare your ideas with the ideas presented in the text below. How are they different?

Meetings can take any forms but a typical format is as follows:

1. Welcome by the Chair – the Chair usually welcomes everyone, particularly any guests who may be present. At this point they may also deal with any “housekeeping” points such as where the toilets are or whether there will be a break for refreshments and so on. The Chair may also confirm everyone’s availability to check who can stay for the full meeting.

2. Previous minutes –minutes from the previous meeting should have been circulated in advance and therefore everyone should have a copy either in paper form or on their

laptop / electronic pad. It is usual to rush through these in the assumption that everyone should have read them thoroughly before the meeting. Everyone is expected to say if there are any aspects that have not been correctly recorded.

3 Review of the agenda – the agenda is received by the Chair to …

Ø clarify that everyone who needs to be present, is there

Ø check that there are no late entries

Ø confirm the time that any visiting speakers or presenters should arrive

Ø calculate the time for each agenda item (so that the entire length of the meeting can be calculated)

If there are too many items on the agenda or it looks like the meeting is going to overrun, the Chair may take a decision to cut the meeting into two or to carry some agenda items over.

4. Items or topics – at this point the meeting actually starts and the items are taken in the order agreedearlier. It is good practice to allocate a time for each speaker by each agenda item as this gives them a ‘slot’ of time to allocate to their subject – but not all meetings do this.

5. Any other business (AOB) –AOB is traditionally a “catch all” for small item that emerged after the agenda was distributed. However, overuse can lead to lazy planning and the meeting overrunning. If attendees think they can put anything in the AOB section, then they will not bother to come up with topics or items for the agenda - after all they can always add them in the meeting. This can become the start of sloppy planning.

6. Round up/conclusion/confirmation of key actions – depending on how the meeting is run, before the meeting ends the Chair may wish to make a concluding statement and agree any outcomes or actions with the relevant parties, especially key ones that

perhaps link to the outcomes of a project.

7. Date of next meeting –unless the meeting is a regular one (e.g. every week) the Chair will generally ask everyone to agree the date of the next meeting. It is usually done at the meeting itself because it is generally understood that participants will have come prepared with their diary or electronic organizer so that they can schedule in any action. The next date can be arranged via email after the meeting, but this can become confusing when only certain attendees can make some dates andnot others.

8. Thanks –generally the meeting ends with the Chair thanking everyone for attending.

9. Minutes – these follow on after the meeting has finished. Ideally you should expect them within one week of the meeting, but, because they rely on the Chair signing them off, this may take a little longer. Everyone should check the minutes for accuracy before noting any personal actions and filing them for the following meeting.

Not all meetings will include every one of these “steps”’ but many meetings will follow a very similar format. Having a format to your meeting gives it structure and ensures all areas are covered. Whatever your format, it needs to be helpful rather than restrictive.