II - Reviewing Past Business

Reading the Minutes (notes) of the Last Meeting

Dealing with Recent Developments

III - Beginning the Meeting

Introducing the Agenda

Allocating Roles (secretary, participants)

Agreeing on the Ground Rules for the Meeting (contributions, timing, decision-making, etc.)

IV - Discussing Items

Introducing the First Item on the Agenda

Closing an Item

Next Item

Giving Control to the Next Participant

V - Finishing the Meeting

Summarizing

Finishing Up

Suggesting and Agreeing on Time, Date and Place for the Next Meeting

Thanking Participants for Attending

Closing the Meeting

Chairperson

Here are some golden rules for a Chairperson on how to prepare and run effective meetings.

Preparation for meetings

• Decide objectives.

• What type of meeting (formal or informal, short or long, regular or a "one time," internal / external information giving / discussion / decision making)?

• Prepare an agenda (list the items to review/discuss/inspect).

• Decide time / place / participants / who must attend and who can be notified of decisions.

• Study subjects for discussion.

• Anticipate different opinions.

• Speak to participants.

Be sure that the Secretary

During the meeting

• Start and end on time.

• Introduce objectives, agenda.

• Introduce speakers.

• Define time limits for contributions.

• Control discussion, encourage ideas from all the participants.

• Summarize discussion at key points.

• Impose control on strong personalities.

• Ensure that key decisions are written down by the secretary.

• Ensure that conclusions and decisions are clear and understood.

• Define actions to be taken and individual responsibilities.

Tips

· Don't Meet. Avoid a meeting if the same information could be covered in a memo, e-mail or brief report.

· Set Objectives for the Meeting.Before planning the agenda, determine the objective of the meeting. You should be able to define the purpose of the meeting in 1 or 2 sentences at most. "This meeting is to plan the new marketing campaign" or "this meeting is to review shipping's new policy for handling returns." That way everyone knows why they are there, what needs to be done, and how to know if they are successful.

· Provide an Agenda Beforehand.Your agenda needs to include a one-sentence description of the meeting objectives, a list of the topics to be covered and a list stating who will address each topic for how long. Follow the agenda closely during the meeting.

· Assign Meeting Preparation.Give all participants something to prepare for the meeting, and that meeting will take on a new significance to each group member.

· Assign Action Items.Don't finish any discussion in the meeting without deciding how to act on it.

· Examine Your Meeting Process.Don't leave the meeting without assessing what took place and making a plan to improve the next meeting.

Golden rules for participating

Do

· read the agenda before and bring supporting documentation.

· speak with sufficient volume and clarity for everyone to hear you.

· respect and support other speakers: develop their ideas.

· be flexible and willing to improvise.

· listen and check to ensure you understand.

· give direct replies: don’t digress.

Don’t

· leave meetings to make ‘important’ phone calls.

· interrupt too much or disagree too strongly.

· react personally to difference of opinion.

· use over-complex language.

· pretend to understand.

· leave the meeting without clearly understanding the decision.

Supplement 1 Minutes Taking

Effective Meetings –Guidelines for Meeting Minutes

Formal Meeting

Taking minutes is a very important part of the meeting procedure and it should be done carefully and thoroughly. Here are some tips on how to be successful in minutes taking.

Don't make the mistake of recording every single comment, but concentrate on getting the general meaning of the discussion and taking enough notes that you can summarize it later.

Remember that minutes are the official record of what happened, not exactly what was said, at a meeting.

Make sure that all of the essential elements are noted, such as type of meeting, name of the organization, date and time, name of the chair or facilitator, main topics and the time of adjournment. For formal and corporate meetings include approval of previous minutes, and any relevant resolutions.

Prepare an outline based on the meeting. Leave plenty of white space within the minutes for your notes. By having the topics already written down, you can jump right on to a new topic without pausing Prepare a list of expected attendees and check off the names as people enter the room. Or, you can pass around an attendance sheet for everyone to sign as the meeting starts. The degree of formality used here will reflect the significance of the meeting and it’s future accountability.

To be sure about who said what, make a map of the seating arrangement, and make sure to ask for introductions of unfamiliar people.

Use whatever device is comfortable for you, a notepad, a laptop computer, a tape recorder, a steno pad or even shorthand. Many people routinely make an audio-recording of important meetings as a backup to their notes.

Be prepared! Study the issues to be discussed and ask a lot of questions ahead of time. If you have to fumble for understanding while you are making your notes, they may not make much sense to you later – when you need to type the minutes up.

Don't wait too long to type up the minutes. The key to producing an accurate record of the events is to record meeting discussion and decisions as soon as possible. Make sure that you have them approved by the chair or facilitator before distributing them to the meeting attendees.

Don't lose sight of the fact that this is an important task. You may be called upon many times to write meeting minutes, and the ability to produce concise, coherent minutes is widely admired and valued.