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Writing Agendas & Minutes of meeting
Writing Agendas & Minutes of meeting
What is a meeting?
What is a meeting?
¨A meeting is a gathering of two or more people that has been convened for the purpose of achieving a common goal through verbal interaction, such as sharing information or reaching agreement.
¨Meetings may occur face-to-face or virtually, as mediated by communications technology, such as a telephone conference call, a skyped conference call or a video conference.
Class Task
¨Think of the meetings that you have attended before.
¨Was there any writing/ reading involved? What was it about?
¨1. Before a meeting – agendas
¨2. During a meeting – using agendas
¨3. After a meeting – minutes
Writing an Agenda
¨An organized meeting needs a well-written agenda.
¨To write an agenda for a meeting, you can create your own from scratch, work from a template, or make the most out of one you already have.
¨Regardless of the method chosen, a well-written agenda should outline basic identifying information about the meeting and summarize both the objective and schedule of the meeting.
¨By sticking to a detailed yet flexible agenda, you can keep your meeting streamlined and focused, ensuring that you meet all of your goals for your meeting in the shortest amount of time.
¨
Start by giving your agenda a title. From the most
beautiful literature to the driest spreadsheet, nearly
every important document needs a title, and meeting
agendas are no exception. Your title should tell the
reader two things: First, that s/he is reading an agenda, and second, what topic the meeting is covering. When you've made a decision, place your title at the top of your blank document. The title doesn't have to flowery or complicated — in a business context, simple and direct titles are usually best.
•Resist the urge to use fancy or large fonts for your title. In most situations, you'll want to use a plain, dignified font like Times New Roman or Calibri and to make your title the same size as the rest of the lettering on the document (or only slightly larger). Remember, the purpose of your title is to inform readers of what they are viewing, not necessarily to amuse or distract them.
2 Include "who?", "where?", and "when?" information in the header: Identification Lines
¨Following the title, meeting agendas usually have a header which can vary in detail depending upon the level of formality your workplace encourages. This header is usually located about one line below the title. Generally, in the header, you'll want to include brief factual information about the meeting that doesn't have to do with the topic being discussed. This is so that people who aren't at the meeting can tell when and where it occurred and who was there. Below are some of the things you may want to include; regardless of the information you choose, be sure to clearly label each piece of information (bolding the label text works well here):
¨Date and time. These can be grouped together or in their own separate sections.
¨Location. If your business has multiple locations, you may want to write the address, whereas if it has just one location, you may want to name the room you're meeting in (e.g., Conference Room #3).
¨Attendees. Job titles are usually optional and not required.
¨Special individuals present. These may be special guests, speakers, or meeting leaders.
¨
¨
¨Meetings that don't have a clearly-defined purpose risk wasting precious time as attendees decide what to talk about. Skip a line after your header and use bolded or underlined text to label your objective section with a title like "Objective" or "Purpose", followed by a colon or a line break.
¨Then, in a few concise and to-the-point sentences, describe the items of discussion for the meeting. Aim to write about 1-4 sentences here. For instance, if you're looking to write an objective statement for a budget meeting, you might use this one: "Objective: Outline key budget goals for the 2014-2015 fiscal year and discuss long-term, cost-cutting measures. Additionally, R&D Director Marcus Feldman will present the results of a recent competitiveness study."
¨
¨Schedules help combat a common flaw: business meetings often run far, far too long. Skip a line after your statement of the objective(s), give your schedule a bolded or underlined title, then begin making entries that correspond to the main topics of discussion in your schedule. For ease of reading, start each entry on its own line.
¨Label each entry with either the time you plan for it to begin and end or the amount of time you plan for each entry to take. Pick one system or the other and be consistent — mixing and matching looks unprofessional.
¨
¨If any guests are coming to your meeting to discuss topics of importance, you'll want to devote a chunk of the meeting time to these people. Plan on assigning each guest a single schedule entry even if s/he has more than one topic of discussion. This way, each one will be able to organize his or her topics as s/he sees fit. It is best to contact the guests ahead of time to figure out how much time each one will need for their discussion topic. This helps to avoid embarrassing scheduling conflicts.
¨
¨During this time, people can ask for clarification about confusing topics of discussion, offer their own adjunct opinions, suggest topics for future meetings, and make other comments. You can make this Q&A time explicit by including it as the final entry in your schedule or you can simply bring it up yourself after the final element of the meeting.
¨If you reach the end of your meeting and no one has any additional questions to ask or comments to make, you can always end the meeting early. Many of your attendees will likely be thankful for this!
¨
7 Check the agenda for errors before distributing it.
¨Because some attendees may end up relying heavily on the meeting agenda, it's wise proofread it for errors and completeness before giving it out. Doing so isn't just a courtesy to the attendees — it also reflects positively on your attention to detail and the respect you have for them.
¨ Additionally, ensuring there are no errors in your agenda can save you time and face.
¨
Sample Agenda
Class Task
¨Write an agenda of a meeting with your colleagues that you want to conduct about the discipline policy in your office. You can include issues of attendance, signing in and out, office decorum, up coming projects and any other issues.
¨
Minutes of the meeting
Conducting Interactive Meetings and Writing Minutes
Conducting Interactive Meetings and Writing Minutes
I. Steps in Planning a Meeting
II. Setting the Agenda
§Elements
§Order of agenda items
§Example
v
III. Participating in Meetings
§The Chairperson
§The Secretary
§The Participants
IV. Resolving conflict
§Possible outcome
§Win-win assumptions
v
V. Writing Minutes of Meeting
§Elements
§Producing minutes
§Example
v
VI. Strategies to Improve Your Listening
Effectiveness
Steps in Planning a Meeting
1. Determining the purpose
§Information sharing
§Decision making
–Identifying issue / brainstorming
–Persuasion and negotiation / discussion
–Decision
§Problem solving
–Identifying solution(s) / brainstorming
–Evaluating solution(s) / discussion
–Choosing best solution(s) / decision
2. Selecting the participants
§Key contributors
§Decision makers
§
3. Setting the agenda
§Frames the structure of the meeting.
§Consists of a list of items to be discussed.
§Distributes meeting content in advance for better contribution.
§Allows chairperson to keep the meeting focused and achieve its purpose.
§Presents items in order they appear and the limit allocated by the chairman.
4. Picking the convenient time and the location
§Time of day
–Morning versus afternoon
§Venue
–Comfort and convenience
–Seating
–
5. Preparing notice of meeting
v
6. Sending out documents
v
7. Copying minutes of last meeting
Setting the Agenda
Elements of the Agenda
1. To : Involved personnel
2. From : Chairperson
3. Date : Date of the meeting
4. Subject: Brief description of the meeting
5. Issues to be discussed
6. Person responsible for any designated issues
7. Designated timeline
8. See Samples
THE GRABBIT INSURANCE COMPANY
AGENDA
AGENDA
TO: All Members of Staff
FROM: Joe Chan (Chairperson)
DATE: 23 February 200-
SUBJECT: Monthly Staff Meeting
A meeting of all members of staff will be held on Monday 3 March 2000 at 10 am in the conference room. It will last about one hour.
1. Apologies for absence (JC)
2. Minutes of the last meeting (JC)
3. Matters arising (WW)
4. Measures to be taken to cut running costs (SY)
5. How the measures are to be implemented
6. Any other business
7. Date of the next meeting
Ms T Tam
Secretary to the chairperson
Distribution: Willie Wong Sanny Yeung
Charlie Wu Billy Bunter
Susie Wong Venus Pong
Peter Perks Joesph Tse
Source: Adapted from NLM
Participating in Meetings
vThe Chairperson
§Before the meeting
§During the meeting
vThe Secretary
§Before the meeting
§During the meeting
§After the meeting
vThe Participants
§Before the meeting
§During the meeting
§After the meeting
Each participant has a role to play in a meeting as follows:
THE CHAIRPERSON
vBeforehand:
§Establishing purpose
§Deciding if a meeting is necessary
§Choosing participants
§Preparing agenda
§Circulating agenda etc.
§Checking arrangements
v During the meeting:
Open the meeting: invite introductions if necessary; state the purpose of the meeting; present the agenda.
Move to first agenda item
Invite someone to speak
Bring others into the discussion
Interrupt / Control if necessary
Ask for repetition and clarification
Paraphrase (restate using own words) & Summarize (brief general statement)
Move to the next point
Conclude the discussion: summarize the decisions/ points raised make sure tasks are delegated
Ask if there is any other business
End the meeting and fix the next
meeting date
THE SECRETARY
vBeforehand:
§Helping distribute
the agenda to participants
§Checking physical
arrangements
§Preparing stationery
and necessary documents etc
§Booking venue
vDuring
the meeting:
§Taking notes for the minutes
§Providing information to chairperson and participants if
needed
vAfter
the meeting:
§Writing up the minutes
§Checking accuracy of the minutes with the chairperson
§Circulating the minutes to participants before the next
meeting
THE PARTICIPANTS
vBeforehand:
§Reading the agenda
and any other pre-meeting documentation
§Preparing for the
meeting
§Confirming
availability
§Being punctual to the
meetivDuring
the meeting:
§Making relevant and productive contributions
§Asking for clarification if necessary
§Being prepared to justify opinions
§Being attentive and listening
§Being aware of your and others’ body language
vAfter
the meeting:
§Following up with any action agreed during the meeting ng
Letters: Formal
Letters: Formal
Components of Letter Writing
Memo components
¨A corporate environment will send letters (external correspondence) to and receive letters from potential employees, vendors, clients, lawyers, colleagues in other companies, and city, state, national, and international governments.
¨No matter who the reader is or why the letter has been written, a letter should have the following eight Essential Components:
¨ Writer’s address
¨ Date
¨ Reader’s address
¨ Salutation
¨ Text
¨ Complimentary close
¨ Signature
¨ Typed name
Formal letter
2 Calle sin nombre
London
5 January 2011
Dear Sir or Madam
I’m writing in response to your advertisement. I would like to apply for the post of part time secretary.
I believe this position would an ideal way of gaining more experience of secretarial work. I have strong communication skills and I’m very interested in working while I am finishing the degree of administration. I also enjoy working in a team.
My qualifications include a module of administration and two years of the degree of Administration and Business Management at the university.
Please find attached my CV; which provides more details of my qualifications and work experience. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require more information.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
Pepita.
Informal letter
58 Big Ben
London
24 May 2011
Hi Andrea,
Thanks for your letter. It was nice to hear from you.
As you know, I’m in London with my parents and my brothers since one week. I’m staying in an expensive hotel. There are lots of nice and dynamic places to see as the Westminster Bridge. At night it’s precious! People are polite although a bit difficult to understand. I must to practice more the English!
The weather is changeable but usually it's wet and windy. The last week was very cold. The food is varied and expensive but it's tasty. This night we’re going to a famous restaurant to have dinner.
I’ve got to go now. Write soon!
Love,
Pepita.
¨
Formal letter VS. Informal letter
¨Greeting:
Dear Sir or Madam
I’m writing in response to your advertisement.
¨Closing:
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours faithfully,
¨Greeting:
Hi
Thanks for your letter. It was nice to hear from you.
¨Closing:
I’ve got to go now. Write soon!
Love,
¨Write a letter to your manager requesting him to replace old computers in your department with new computers with updated soft wares.
Acknowledgement letters
Memos
Memos differ from letters in two
significant ways
significant ways
¨First, memos are internal correspondence, written by employees in a company to employees in the same company. Letters, in contrast, are external correspondence, written from within a company to outside vendors, clients, or colleagues.
¨Secondly, memos have a different format than the letter essential components.
Memo components
¨Memos replace the eight letter essential components with the following memo identification lines:
¨Date: Date is the month, day, and year in which you are writing
¨To: To names your reader
¨From: From is your name
¨Subject: Subject (typed in all capitals) provides your audience two things: a topic and a focus.
¨For example, a successful subject line would read as follows:
¨Subject: VACATION SCHEDULE FOR ACCOUNTANTS
¨Subject: VACATION SCHEDULE FOR ACCOUNTANTS
¨Accountants is the topic of the memo; vacation schedule is the focus.
¨The focus aids communication more than the topic.
¨The topic of a memo, for instance, can stay the same, while the focus changes. Look at the following examples:
Subject: SALARY INCREASE FOR ACCOUNTANTS
Subject: TERMINATION OF ACCOUNTANTS
In each of these instances, the topic stays the same: Accountants. Notice, then, how important the focus comments are. We see a huge difference between salary increases, vacation schedules, and termination.
¨In addition to the identification lines, memos differ
from letters in one other subtle way. Whereas letters are signed (essential
component #7), memos are initialed next to the From line.
¨Though memos and letters differ as noted, they are
similar in all other ways. Successful memos, like letters, have an
introduction, body, and conclusion. Like letters, successful memos are clear,
concise, accessible, accurate, and achieve audience recognition.
Class
Task
During a routine safety committee inspection for your school, you discover that the generators and
electricity equipment are placed in the playground (they are supposed to be kept closed at all times and away from
the students). You
discussed the issue with Mr.
Hamza, the foreman in charge of the area in question,
but he refused to rectify the problem. Write a memo to Mr. Amir, the Vice President who supervises the safety committee. Explain the situation and specify
what action you want taken.
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