BSBADM405 Organise Meetings Topics

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BSBADM405 Organise Meetings

Make meeting arrangements

Prepare and distribute documentation for meetings

Record and produce minutes of meeting

TOPIC 1 – MAKE MEETING ARRANGEMENTS

  • Identify the type of meeting being organised and its purpose
  • In a meeting, two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal setting.
  • Meetings are held for many reasons such as making decisions, generating ideas, making plans, communicating and receiving information.

Meeting types can include:

  • Annual general meeting (AGM)
  • Extraordinary general meeting (EGM)
  • Board meetings
  • Committee meetings
  • Management meetings
  • Sales meetings
  • Conferences and ‘away-days.’
  • Departmental meetings
  • Staff meetings
  • Steering group meetings
  • Project team meetings
  • Team briefings
  • One-off informal meetings

Identify and comply with any legal or ethical requirements

  • Early in the planning stages, but after you have decided your purpose and type of meeting, thought must be given to the legal and ethical requirements. These include:
  • Codes of Practice
  • Legislation Relating to Companies or Associations
  • The Disability Discrimination Act (1992)
  • Regardless of whether your meetings are formal or informal, consideration must always be given to safety

Identify requirements of the meeting and its participants

The next step is to understand the actual requirements. To do this you must understand if the meeting is to be:

  • Formal
  • Informal
  • Self-managed
  • Semi-formal
  • Structured

In is not uncommon for structured meetings to contain a similar number of participants to a Public Meeting.

Voting

  • In a meeting, there are various ways that you utilise to vote or agree on a decision. Some meetings just discuss until there is a consensus agreement, others require a majority vote.
  • For example, in the cases of many formal meetings, public companies and large entities, there are policies and procedures or standing rules that will apply to the voting procedures. Seek assistance from the Chairperson or initiator to see if there is a preferred method for voting in this meeting.

Make meeting arrangements in accordance with meeting and participants requirements

The arrangements you make must ensure the success of your meeting. It should run smoothly and achieve all the desired outcomes.

They can include:

  • Budget
  • Transport
  • Accommodation
  • Choosing a date
  • Location
  • Meeting equipment
  • Catering

Advise participants of meeting details

You will need to ensure you advise attendees of the meeting. You may have to advertise the meeting in newspapers etc… if it is a public meeting. Make sure you have quotes for this also and factor it into your budget.

Information that you may need to prepare and supply in advance might include:

  • Chairperson’s report
  • Committee reports
  • Draft documentation
  • Financial reports
  • Itemised meeting papers
  • Minutes of the previous meeting
  • Research reports

TOPICS 2 – PREPARE AND DISTRIBUTE DOCUMENTATION FOR MEETINGS

Prepare notice of meeting, agenda and meeting papers in accordance with meeting requirements

Depending on the type and structure of the meeting (formal, semi-formal, or informal), the agenda will list many of the following items with corresponding time allotments:

PREPARE AND DISTRIBUTE DOCUMENTATION FOR MEETINGS

Meeting documentation & papers

The agenda or other meeting papers are the tools that you must have in order for the meeting participants

These documents may include:

  • The Agenda
  • Notice of Meeting
  • Chairperson Reports
  • Written Motions
  • Committee Reports
  • Any correspondence
  • Financial Reports
  • Minutes of the previous meetings
  • Any papers, reports, or proposals to be presented during the meeting

Check documentation for accuracy and correct any errors

If it is your responsibility to prepare or distribute any of the meeting papers, you will need to check each document to determine if they are accurate.

  • This may mean you will need to make corrections if you find any errors.
  • Once these documents have been issued (i.e. emailed, hand-delivered, posted to the company intranet, et cetera), any changes may make you look unprofessional.

Distribute documentation to participants within designated timelines

  • Timing the distribution of documentation to meeting participants and attendees can be a bit a little difficult. If you send it too early, they are likely to lose it. On the other hand, if you send it too late, they won’t have time to review it.
  • The best way to organise the timing is to distribute in two phases. The first phase is to send out information to meeting participants, such as officers and presenters. This should happen approximately 2 weeks before the meeting to allow them time to review the materials and get back to you with any problems or changes.

Prepare spare sets of documents

Regardless of how well you prepare documentation prior to a meeting there will be people who forget to bring their documentation.

  • You may also find that people attend the meeting even though they were not on the invite list! This might be an unusual event but sometimes a manager or stakeholder will attend even when the meeting is not really relevant to them. Of course that is their right but it means that you won’t have notes for them.

TOPIC 3 – RECORD AND PRODUCE MINUTES OF MEETING

Take notes with the required speed and accuracy to ensure an accurate record of the meeting

The reason for “taking minutes” in a formal meeting, or “notes” in an informal one is to create a record of what was said, for a number of purposes:

  • Remind the attendees of what they said, committed to and what decisions were made
  • Inform people who could not attend the meeting of the meeting’s results
  • Provide a permanent record of decisions made
  • Ensure that everyone has the same records of the meeting

Produce minutes that reflect a true and accurate account of the meeting

When creating the minutes of a meeting accuracy vital, simple yes or no can change the meaning of important decisions

Minutes are more formal than notes. As such, they need to include a little bit more information. Your minutes may include:

  • Meeting details (title, place date, time)
  • Agenda items
  • Apologies
  • Names of absent and attending participants
  • Approval of the record of the previous minutes
  • Correspondence
  • Lists rather than complete sentences
  • Matters arising from the previous meetings

Check minutes for accuracy and submit for approval by the nominated person

Once you have completed your minutes you should distribute them soon after the meeting has ended but before the next meeting convenes.

The secretary and leader of the group are always responsible for signing the final “approved” minutes.

  • There are two ways this can be done:
  • You can read the minutes out to meeting participants
  • Refer to the minutes that have been earlier distributed

Dispatch copies of minutes within designated timelines

The last thing you will need to do is to distribute the minutes of the meeting.

This will include all meeting participants, but can also include:

  • Staff members who have responsibility to complete action items that were decided in the meeting
  • Members of management who have supervisory responsibility for those who have to accomplish action items that were decided upon in the meeting
  • Affiliate organisations that may be affected by decisions made in the meeting
  • People who were unable to attend the meeting
  • In some cases, you may need to provide copies to government organisations for their archives

You may also need to provide copies to corporate headquarters