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 In a company, much time is devoted to meetings, whether in small groups or in large gatherings. Effectiveness in a meeting depends not only on one's ability to listen, but on one's skill in presenting material and facilitating communication among other participants. Meetings are an integral part of our daily business activities. Productive meetings are well planned, results-oriented and rare. Unproductive meetings are too long, vague in purpose or direction, poorly controlled, and frustratingly, part of everyone's routine.
What do we use meetings for?
Meetings are very important for the work of any organisation. Good meetings are important for collective decision-making, planning and follow-up, accountability, democracy, and other practices that will help you to build a good organisation. If meetings are used in the correct way, they can help an organisation to be efficient. However, like all organising tools, meetings can be used badly and end up not serving the purpose that they are supposed to. Sometimes we seem to attend too many long meetings, which discuss the same thing over and over again without seeming to move forward. Meetings can become places where conflict is played out. Some people can also see attending meetings as working for the organisation instead of seeing it as a tool for getting work done. We should try to make our meetings places where we get democratic and constructive participation and involvement from our members. The purpose of meetings
Most people do not like attending meetings – especially if they are not sure what the purpose of the meeting is, or if it goes on too long and achieves too little. Meetings must not be too frequent or held just for the sake of it. There must be a need for a meeting. There should be decisions about the different types of meetings needed. For example, some meetings could be to discuss policy and others to discuss organisation (practical work).
Wherever possible the members must know what type of meeting they are going to and what the meeting is for – in other words, the PURPOSE of the meeting. Sometimes an organisation might call a special or extraordinary meeting.
There are different types of meetings and planning and it should take account of this. Different types of meetings Most organizations hold the following types of meetings: 1. The general members meeting:
This is the most common meeting, which usually happens once a month or once every two weeks. The general members meeting should be the place where members are informed of developments, involved in decisions and given education and information that will help them to become more active in the organisation. General meetings are usually the places where decisions are made and where the executive reports on work they and other sub-committees have done. 2. Special meetings:
These can be called to discuss specific issues, for example preparing for a national conference or work on planning activities for the year. Any members who are interested should be invited to attend special meetings. They should not be run like general members meetings (with minutes, reports etc) but should only focus on the issues they’ve been called to discuss. 3. Executive meetings:
The executive should meet more regularly than the general members, and executive meetings should have a more business-like focus. The executive has to plan implementation for the organisation, monitor the work that has been done, deal with problems, and often (if you’re part of a larger organisation) relate to other levels of the organisation. They should discuss correspondence in detail and address problems as they come up. The executive should also keep an eye on the finances of the organisation and monitor income and expenditure. Every executive meeting should have an item on the agenda that plans for the next general members meeting. They should provide both leadership and administration to the organisation. 4. Annual General Meeting:
Most organizations have an Annual General Meeting laid down in their constitution. The AGM is the place where the executive accounts to all members about the activities of the year as well as the finances of the organisation. The AGM is also the place where new leaders are elected and are given a mandate to run the organisation for another year. Most AGM’s need at least the following two detailed reports to the members: • The secretary’s report that lists plans of the organisation, the actual activities that took place that year, the achievements of the year, and the problems experienced.
• The treasurer’s report: a detailed financial report that lists all income from subscriptions, grants, donations, fundraising; and all expenditure. This report should also clearly state what the balance is and where that balance is held. It is important to have a written financial report at your AGM but very often members find financial reports difficult to understand and you should try and make it simpler by putting the main headings on news-prints and explaining it to people in less financial language. 5. Planning a meeting
Planning should improve participation by ensuring that discussion is on a single topic and that the members are well prepared for the meeting. This is the responsibility of the Chairperson, Secretary and Executive, depending on the type of organisation.
Planning does not mean controlling and directing the meeting in such a way that it restricts participation Planning should include the following: Notification : It is the executive’s responsibility to ensure that everyone has been notified of the date, time and venue of the meeting, as well as the main issues to be discussed. For many organisations it is a useful practice to always have their meetings on the same day at the same time in the same place – for example on the first Saturday of every month at the local church hall. If you do not money to always inform your members of meetings then over time this will help you to cut costs, and to make sure that everyone knows where they can find the meeting.  Preparing the agenda : The agenda is a list of the most important issues for the members to discuss. It is drawn from the Matters Arising from the previous meeting and from the discussions of the Executive or Secretariat.
The agenda is the responsibility of the Chairperson and the Secretary. The chairperson should read the minutes of the previous meeting to familiarise him/herself with the issues. This will for the basis of a list of matter arising from these minutes. Matters arising include :
• Tasks – a report back must be given
• Matters for which further information was required for discussion
• Matters that were deferred to this meeting There are standard items for any agenda. These items should be arranged in order of priority and time should be allocated for each discussion. Where possible, try to familiarize yourself with each area of discussion. An agenda should include a last item known as General or Any Other Business to allow individuals to raise short items not included on the agenda.
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