Planning for, & participating in

meetings

Unit 4
 Definition of Meeting
• In common word a meeting is an assembly of
two or more people for reaching a decision
through discussion. It is one of the major
media of oral communication.
• A meeting is an occasion when people come
to gather to discuss or decide something”
• A meeting is held to take decision on a
particular issue or on a matter of common
interest. In case of joint stock Company,
statutory meeting and Annual general
meeting is must.
 Types of Meetings
• Formal meeting: When any meeting is arranged by
following official formalities, rules and decorum then it
is called formal meeting.
• Informal meeting: When any meeting is arranged
without maintaining official rules and regulation, it is
called informal meeting. Such meeting can be called
upon by giving short notice using informal media. This
type of meeting is very common in the workplace.
• Private meeting: Private meeting is called for
discussing confidential and restricted issues where
general people have prohibition to access. Only
selected people are allowed to attend the meeting.
• Public meeting: When meeting is held in a public
place to discuss issues regarding public interests,
it is called public meeting. Here, general people
are cordially invited.
• Company meeting: When a meeting is called by
the general manager, director or secretary (Who
has power of attorney) of a company to discuss
issues or affairs of a company, it is called
company meeting, e.g. Annual general meeting.
Statutory meeting, Directors’ meeting which are
required to be called by abiding company law.
• Committee meeting: When the chief of
the committee calls a meeting on certain
issues for which the committee is formed,
it is called committee meeting. Only
members of the committee can take part
in such meeting.
 Purposes of Meetings

• A meeting is called to discuss various issues

of interest. Such issues vary considering the
purpose of an entity or concern. The following
is the general purposes to call a meeting.
• Meeting is held to notify the vision, mission or
objective of any organization.
• Meeting is called to announce the
performance or progress of any activity or
work.
• Meeting is held for reviewing the progress of
any project or program.
• Meeting is called to share dialogue with the
members of the organization or with the
people of a society.
• Meeting is held to announce any innovation,
development or changes related to product,
service or activities.
• Meeting are called to celebrate any success
and to share the achievement with the
members who are entitled.
 The Purpose of Meetings

• Meetings are an important organisational tool as

they can be used to:
– Pool and develop ideas
– Plan
– Solve problems
– Make decisions
– Create and develop understanding
– Encourage enthusiasm and initiative
– Provide a sense of direction
– Create a common purpose
 Components of Meetings

• A meeting can be divided into the following three main

components:
– Content is the knowledge, information, experience, expertise,
opinions, ideas, attitudes and expectations that each individual
brings to a meeting.
– Interaction is the way in which the participants work together
to deal with the content of a meeting. This includes the
feelings, attitudes and expectations of the participants which
have a direct bearing on co-operation, listening, participation
and trust.
– Structure is the way in which both the information and the
participants are organised to achieve the purpose/objectives of
the meeting.
 Types of Meetings

• There are many different types of meetings; here

we focus on those used to:
– Inform
– Consult
– Solve problems
– Make decisions
 Informing Meetings

• These are the most straightforward

meetings where one member, usually the
chairperson, has factual information or a
decision which affects all those present,
which he/she wishes to communicate. Such
meetings tend to be formal as their aims are
to give the members a real understanding
and to discuss any implications or how to
put such information to best use.
 Consulting Meetings

• These are meetings used to discuss a

specific policy or innovation and can be
used to get participants' views of such a
policy or idea. An example could be:
– Review a current policy
– State its deficiencies
– Suggest change
– Stress the advantages of such change
– Admit any weaknesses
 Problem Solving Meetings

• These meetings are dependent upon the

chairperson describing the problem as
clearly as possible. Members should be
selected according to their experience,
expertise or interest and then given as
much information as possible to enable
them to generate ideas, offer advice and
reach conclusions
 Decision Making Meetings

• These types of meetings tend to follow an

established method of procedure:
• Description of the problem
• Analysis of the problem
• Draw out ideas
• Decide which is best
• Reach conclusions
 Responsibilities of a chairperson

• The Chair provides leadership for the

committee sets the agenda for meetings
and manages meetings in line with the
agenda.
• The Chair should ensure that issues are
properly debated and an agreement is
reached.
• Some committee members will be better
at expressing themselves than others; it is
important that the chair welcomes
contributions from all members of the
committee so that everyone feels involved.
• The Chair will ensure that all new
members feel welcome and their
contributions valued. The Chair will
introduce them to the other members and
encourage them to play an active part in
the discussions at committee meetings.
• Main duties:
– Provide leadership
– Sign the approved minutes of the last meeting
– Set the agenda for meetings
– Get to know members of the committee
– Run meetings in an efficient and timely manner
ensuring that everyone is able to contribute
– Agree a date for the next meeting
– Welcome and involve new members
 Secretary

• The Secretary is a key committee member

as they are responsible for ensuring
effective communication links between
committee members
• Main duties
– Deal with correspondence
– Arrange meetings
– Prepare and distribute agendas
– Take the minutes of meetings, type them up
and distribute them
– Ensure that enough committee members are
present to make the meeting quorate
Drafting business communication
documents

Unit 5
  
Minutes taking

• Best practice for Minute taking is either by

a Minutes Secretary or a technological
solution (digital recorder which then
converts to a Word document). It is most
efficient to have a Minutes Template
prepared and to take your laptop. A
Minutes Secretary does not replace the
Committee Secretary.
• The Minutes Secretary is anyone who can
accurately take minutes and provide a first
draft quickly and efficiently to the Secretary.
• The Secretary then checks the Minutes for
accuracy and releases them to other
Committee members. The Minutes
Secretary is often a person with good
shorthand or technology skills.
• Using a Minutes Secretary frees the
Secretary to actively participate in the
Committee meeting.
• Minutes should NOT record who said what
unless someone distinctly request to go on
the record. The Minutes should provide a
record of the proceedings of the meeting
just sufficiently to be useful and transparent.
E.g. the Minutes do not need to detail all the
points of discussion, rather summarise and
provide the resultant decision.
• Motions, decisions and other formal
aspects are recorded. It is very important
that:
• Motions and any ongoing actions have a
designated person responsible to oversee
the implementation of the motion or action,
and this person is recorded in the Minutes.
• Minutes must be disseminated
electronically to the Committee within
seven working days of the meeting.
• The “What Do We Tell Our Members from
This” summary for publishing to members
is disseminated.
• If a delegate or Committee Member has
made a representation to the Committee,
a written report as to the topic, actions and
outcomes needs to be provided within the
Minutes.
• The Secretary on behalf of the Committee
maintains a Record of Key Committee
decisions and a Committee Action
Tracking List as below.
Making Good Oral Presentations

Unit 7
 Talk to the Audience

• We do not mean face the audience,

although gaining eye contact with as many
people as possible when you present is
important since it adds a level of intimacy
and comfort to the presentation. We mean
prepare presentations that address the
target audience
• . Be sure you know who your audience is
—what are their backgrounds and
knowledge level of the material you are
presenting and what they are hoping to
get out of the presentation? Off-topic
presentations are usually boring and will
not endear you to the audience. Deliver
what the audience wants to hear.
 Less is More
• A common mistake of inexperienced
presenters is to try to say too much. They
feel the need to prove themselves by
proving to the audience that they know a
lot. As a result, the main message is often
lost, and valuable question time is usually
curtailed.
• Your knowledge of the subject is best
expressed through a clear and concise
presentation that is provocative and leads
to a dialog during the question-and-
answer session when the audience
becomes active participants.
• At that point, your knowledge of the
material will likely become clear. If you do
not get any questions, then you have not
been following the other rules. Most likely,
your presentation was either
incomprehensible or trite. A side effect of
too much material is that you talk too
quickly, another ingredient of a lost
message.
 Only Talk When You Have Something to Say

• Do not be overzealous about what you

think you will have available to present
when the time comes. Research never
goes as fast as you would like. Remember
the audience's time is precious and should
not be abused by presentation of
uninteresting preliminary material.
 Make the Take-Home Message Persistent

• A good rule of thumb would seem to be that if

you ask a member of the audience a week
later about your presentation, they should be
able to remember three points. If these are the
key points you were trying to get across, you
have done a good job. If they can remember
any three points, but not the key points, then
your emphasis was wrong. It is obvious what it
means if they cannot recall three points!
 Be Logical

• Think of the presentation as a story. There

is a logical flow—a clear beginning,
middle, and an end. You set the stage
(beginning), you tell the story (middle),
and you have a big finish (the end) where
the take-home message is clearly
understood
 Treat the Floor as a Stage

• Presentations should be entertaining, but

do not overdo it and do know your limits. If
you are not humorous by nature, do not
try and be humorous. If you are not good
at telling anecdotes, do not try and tell
anecdotes, and so on. A good entertainer
will captivate the audience and increase
the likelihood of obeying Rule 4.
 Practice and Time Your Presentation

• This is particularly important for

inexperienced presenters. Even more
important, when you give the presentation,
stick to what you practice. It is common to
deviate, and even worse to start
presenting material that you know less
about than the audience does. The more
you practice, the less likely you will be to
go off on tangents.
• Visual cues help here. The more
presentations you give, the better you are
going to get.
• In a scientific environment, take every
opportunity to do journal club and become
a teaching assistant if it allows you to
present. An important talk should not be
given for the first time to an audience of
peers.
• You should have delivered it to your
research collaborators who will be kinder
and gentler but still point out obvious
discrepancies. Laboratory group meetings
are a fine forum for this.
 Use Visuals Sparingly but Effectively

• Presenters have different styles of

presenting. Some can captivate the
audience with no visuals (rare); others
require visual cues and in addition,
depending on the material, may not be
able to present a particular topic well
without the appropriate visuals such as
graphs and charts
• Preparing good visual materials will be the
subject of a further Ten Simple Rules.
Rule 7 will help you to define the right
number of visuals for a particular
presentation.
Review Audio and/or Video of Your Presentations

• There is nothing more effective than

listening to, or listening to and viewing, a
presentation you have made. Violations of
the other rules will become obvious.
Seeing what is wrong is easy, correcting it
the next time around is not. You will likely
need to break bad habits that lead to the
violation of the other rules. Work hard on
breaking bad habits; it is important
 Provide Appropriate Acknowledgments

• People love to be acknowledged for their

contributions. Having many gratuitous
acknowledgements degrades the people
who actually contributed.
 Types of Presentations
• The first step in preparing a presentation is
to define the purpose of your presentation.
• The following is an overview of several
common types of presentations and their
purpose. Each presentation type requires a
specific organization technique to assure
they are understood and remembered by
the audience. The suggested organizational
structure is also provided.
 Informative

• Keep an informative presentation brief and

to the point. Stick to the facts and avoid
complicated information. Choose one of the
following organizational structures for an
informative presentation:
– Time
• Explains when things should happen
• Works best with visual people or people who can see
the overall organization or sequence of events
• Use words like "first," "second," "third," to list order
– Place
• Explains where things should happen
• Works best with people who understand the group or
area you are talking about
• Use words like "Region 1, 2, 3, or 4" to explain order
– Cause and Effect
• Explains how things should happen
• Works best with people who understand the
relationship between events
• Use phrases like "Because of _____, we now have to
______"
– Logical Order
• Simply list items in their order of importance Works
best with people who are accustomed to breaking
down complex data into components inorder to
digest the material
 Instructional

• Your purpose in an instructional presentation is

to give specificdirections or orders. Your
presentation will probably be a bit
longer,because it has to cover your topic
thoroughly. In an instructional presentation, your
listeners should come away with new knowledge
or anew skill.
• Explain why the information or skill is valuable to the
audience
• Explain the learning objectives of the instructional program
 Arousing

• Your purpose in an arousing presentation is to make

people think about a certain problem or situation. You
want to arouse the audience's emotions and intellect so
that they will be receptive to your point of view. Use vivid
language in an arousing presentation -- project sincerity
and enthusiasm.
– Gain attention with a story that illustrates (and sometimes
exaggerates) the problem
• Show the need to solve the problem and illustrate it with
an example that is general
 Persuasive

• Your purpose in a persuasive presentation

is to convince your listeners to accept your
proposal. A convincing, persuasive
presentation offers a solution to a
controversy, dispute, or problem.
• To succeed with a persuasive presentation, you
must present sufficient logic, evidence, and
emotion to sway the audience to your viewpoint.
– Create a great introduction because a persuasive
presentation introduction must accomplish the
following:
• Seize the audience's attention
• Disclose the problem or needs that your product or service
will satisfy
• Decision-making
• Your purpose in a decision-making
presentation is to move your audience to
take your suggested action. A decision-
making presentation presents ideas,
suggestions, and arguments strongly
enough to persuade an audience to carry
out your requests.
• In a decision-making presentation, you
must tell the audience what to do and how
to do it.You should also let them know
what will happen if the don't do what you
ask.
– Gain attention with a story that illustrates the
problem
• Show the need to solve the problem and
illustrate it with an example that is general