How To Plan And Conduct A Meeting: A Comprehensive Guide

Timelines for sending notice of meetings, producing draft minutes for approval and circulating final minutes.

1. Communication techniques, which are culturally appropriate and should be followed while conducting and participating in meetings.
2. Duties of various parties involved in the meeting, such as the meeting chair, the minute taker etc.
3. List of legislation to consider, the provisions that are relevant and which must be complied with when organising and conducting a meeting effectively.

1. Occupational Health and Safety Laws and Codes of Practice
2. Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity

1. Ethical principles and values
2. The template to be used for the agenda and the minutes, which are to be recorded for the meeting.

Once you have drafted the new procedure you are required to submit it to the HR Manager and seek approval for implementation.

Key Considerations for Planning and Conducting a Meeting

1.What is the purpose of the meeting?

List the decisions and outcomes you wish to achieve from the meeting. The main purpose of this meeting with my lecturer is to know about the project that he has provided us last week. As I am an online course students, it is difficult for me to understand the critical components of the course as well as the project (Sox, Kline & Crews, 2014). Hence, in order to understand them completely, I planned to conduct a meeting with my lecturer so as to clear my doubts. I wish that I shall be then understanding the project nicely without any further issues.

2.What type of meeting do you plan to conduct?

3.(you may choose more than one and explain why) I have planned to conduct a meeting via Videoconferencing.

I have planned to conduct a meeting via Video conferencing as I am an online student and I cannot be available physically for the meeting procedure. Hence, I found Videoconferencing to be a better option than any other.

4.How much time will the meeting take and how do you plan to manage the time?

Time is a very precious resource and I know my lecturer is a very busy person. I too have lots of things to do for the project as the time is very short and I have lot of things to do. Hence, I do not want to waste our time. The meeting shall take around 30 minutes. I shall have a prior telephonic conversation with the lecturer so as to know when he shall be free to have a 30 minutes meeting with me. I have also listed out a lot of topics for my discussion with the lecturer. I have also made a checklist in order to insure that all the information are covered (Lee & Slocum, 2015).

5.How many participants will attend the meeting? There will be no more than 4 participants in the meeting. Me, two of my friends who are also undergoing the same online course and my lecturer.

6.How will you address the following requirements in organizing the meeting?

a.Occupational Health and Safety Laws and Codes of Practice

b.Anti-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity

c.Privacy laws

d.Ethical principles and values I would be addressing the following requirements in organising the meeting in the following ways:

a.Occupational Health and Safety Laws and Codes of Practice- I shall be staying focused and undistracted all through the meeting and shall be taking notes on what the lecturer is saying. I shall be maintaining my etiquette and shall not cross the limit of teacher-student relationship. I shall also try to avoid eating and drinking so that I could be prepared if any questions are directed to me by the lecturer. None of us would make noise and other distracting sounds. We shall also not interrupt the other speakers.

1. Purpose of the Meeting

b.Anti-Discrimination and Equal opportunity- I shall be giving my peers equal opportunities to clear their doubts and to present their questions. To this regard, I have therefore, divided the 30minutes for three of us. 10 minutes each, though most of the doubts that we have are similar to each other.

c.Privacy Laws- I shall ensure that we are not making any recording of the video.

d.Ethical principles and values- I shall be taking prior permission of my lecturer in order to ensure that he is willing to take participation in the meeting.

7.What supporting documents will you need to conduct this meeting?

How will you ensure the documents are accurate? I shall be providing enough information prior to the meeting so that my friends could arrive to the meeting place with a general familiarity as well as the frameworks of the doubts, issues and the projects that are to be discussed. With the same, I shall also be providing them with a list of do’s and don’ts so as to make them aware of the things and laws that they need to be address while the meeting process. I shall be rechecking the written documents in order to ensure that they are accurate or not.

8.How will you inform and advise the participants about the meeting?

How will you ensure that you are able to address the cultural diversity of the participants? Three of us (me and my two course mates) lives in the same city. Hence, I shall be informing them about the meeting over telephonic conversation and would ask them to visit my place for the meeting. With the ones with whom I could not communicate over telephone, I have planned to send them an e-mail regarding the interview and shall share them the other related documented over there. There, I shall be providing them with the supporting materials and would also ask them to note down their queries that they want to solve about the project (Lehmann-Willenbrock, Allen & Kauffeld, 2013). Furthermore, In order to ensure that I am able to address the cultural diversity of the participants involved, I shall be asking them how they want to be addressed.

9.What potential challenges or difficulties do you think may affect the meeting?

How do you plan to address these difficulties or challenges? The potential challenges that I think might affect the meeting are of slow internet connections, differences in time zones and lack of collegiality.

2. Type of Meeting

In order to address there difficulties I shall be ensuring that I am using quality video conferencing software for the same i.e., ezTalks video conferencing software.

Reflection and Review Points Student notes and relevant evidence/examples.

1.Were the agenda and notice sent well in advance as required for the meeting or the task? Yes, the agenda and the notice are sent well in advance as required for the meeting to the lecturer and my peers.

2.How did you check the accuracy of the documents presented and used in the meeting? In order to check the accuracy of the documents presented and used in the meeting, I shall be rechecking the entire documents, checking the grammar and spelling, Layout critique, format of the paper, and fact-checking.

3.How did you address any potential issues or challenges if the documents were not accurate In order to address any such potential issues and challenges, I shall be making a whole new document for the same, correcting every errors. As this would be a meeting in regard to a project. Hence, I hope not so serious issue will emerge. However, I shall be ensuring that there is no error in the documents.

4.How did you ensure that all participants received the relevant documentation within designated timelines In order to ensure that all the participants have received relevant documentation within the designated timelines, I shall make sure that the documents are been handed to them before 3 days of the meeting. I shall ensure no delay for the same.

5.Did you prepare spare of documents for the meeting? If not, what potential issues may require that you prepare a spare set of documents? Yes, I have prepared a spare of documents for the meeting keeping in mind that in case, if any document gets lost, then we could manage with the same with no harassment in front of the lecturer.

6.Did you take notes with required speed and accuracy to ensure an accurate record of the meeting? Yes, Actually I had already spoken up with my mates to take a note side by side when the other student will have a talk with the lecturer. So, it he can ask all his queries effectively and also, the notes are taken properly.

7.How was the meeting closed? The meeting was closed right after 27 minutes. We then thanked our lecturer to make and invest such a precious time of his upon us. He also wished us good luck for the project and asked us to prepare well for the examination.

Reflection and Review Points Student notes and relevant evidence/examples.

1.Were the draft minutes of the meeting prepared and submitted within required and recommended timelines? Yes, the draft minutes of the meeting prepared and submitted within required and recommended timelines (Lederer, 2013).

2.What methods were used to check the minutes of the meeting for accuracy? a.We have rechecked the names of the participants and indicated whether anyone was absent or not (although there was not)

b.We then used the agenda of the meeting as the starting point. We also recorded the summary of the main discussion points for every item on agenda.

c.Also, after hearing that the lecturer is giving us some important instruction and information about the project, we then restate those instructions in front of him in order to ensure that the recordings are done in correct manner.

d.I have them recorded the action items.

3.What approval process was undertaken to finalize the minutes of the meeting before it was circulated? I have shared the minutes through online for getting the approval. I have made use of voting outcomes for this process.

4.Were the final minutes of the meeting distributed to all intended parties within required timelines? Yes, the final minutes of the meeting distributed to all intended parties within required timelines.

Reference

Lederer, A.L., (2013). The Information Systems Planning Process Meeting the challenges of information systems planning. Strategic Information Management, 216.

Lee, S.S. & Slocum, S., (2015), January. Understanding the Role of Local Food in the Meeting Industry: An Exploratory Study of Meeting Planners' Perception of Local Food in Sustainable Meeting Planning. In Journal of Convention & Event Tourism (Vol. 16, No. 1, pp. 45-60). Routledge.

Lehmann-Willenbrock, N., Allen, J.A. and Kauffeld, S., 2013. A sequential analysis of procedural meeting communication: How teams facilitate their meetings. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 41(4), pp.365-388.

Sox, C.B., Kline, S.F. & Crews, T.B., (2014). Identifying best practices, opportunities and barriers in meeting planning for Generation Y. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.244-254.