Meeting Agendas,
Meetings,
Meeting Control
&
Meeting Minutes
Remote Services Technology,
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© R.S.T. 2000
The copyright of this document is vested in R.S.T. and the document is issued in confidence for the purpose only for which it is supplied. It must not be reproduced in whole or in part or used for tendering or manufacturing purposes except under an agreement or with consent, in writing, of R.S.T. and then only on condition that this notice is included in any such reproduction.
3.4 Persons Invited to the Meeting
3.5 Authority of meeting attendees
3.8.1 What is the difference between Meeting Notes and Minutes?
3.8.5 Notes for post Meeting events
3.9 Minutes from previous Meeting
3.9.2 Agreeing the last Meeting Minutes
3.9.3 Actions arising from Minutes
Appendices
A Sample Minutes to Meeting No. 1
B Sample Minutes to Meeting No. 2
MEETINGS
Meetings form a very important part of project and company operation. When used properly they are part of the project contractual documentation and action control. Meetings enable different parties to get together to agree on topics that are essential to the progress of the project. Agreements taken at meetings become contractual, or they should if the people at the meeting have the necessary authority to make such agreements. Meeting minutes must be correctly taken, meeting notes are exactly what they say – notes of a meeting and they have no contractual standing.
Meeting must be run to a defined protocol. An uncontrolled Meeting is a well known means of wasting a lot of peoples time and achieving little or nothing. A controlled Meeting ensures that no time is wasted and definite results are obtained from the Meeting.
Anyone who need to gather or pass on information can call a Meeting. It is the responsibility of the person calling the Meeting to ensure that an agenda is set and circulated to the people invited to the meeting.
A Meeting is called when a person, or persons, need to gather, pass on information or request evaluation of information. A Meeting can consist or two or more people. For a Meeting to be effective it must be run to a set of rules. A Meeting must have a declared set of aims that are to be the end product of the Meeting. This means that all persons attending a Meeting must be warned in advance and told the objectives of the Meeting. At the end of a Meeting follow up actions are required to ensure that actions taken during a Meeting are progressed to a conclusion.
It is a common practice to call a Meeting for practically anything. It must be remembered that a Meeting is going to have a number of people sitting around listening to one persons comment at a time. In other words they are working serially. If they were not at the Meeting they would be working on different tasks or working in parallel. As a rule of thumb it can be said that the cost of a Meeting is the equivalent of one person working at the hourly rate of all the persons present added together. For example if five people were in a Meeting and they were on an hourly rate of £20 the resultant work output would be the same as one man working for one hour at £100. This is a cost frequently over looked.
If there is a requirement for a group of people to share information and interact to information change, then a Meeting can be called. If information is to be passed on, with comments, it can be collected in a written form so a Meeting does not need to be called. It may be that after a session, of passing written information back and forth, a Meeting needs to be called to produce a set of agreed conclusions. In other words the donkey work is carried out without unnecessary meetings and one Meeting completes the task.
Look carefully at what you want a Meeting to achieve and ask the question ‘ Can the task be completed without a Meeting?’
Within our field of business were are likely to have the following types of Meeting:
The above is not an exhaustive and represents only a sample list.
When a Meeting is called a Meeting Agenda should be circulated. An Agenda will define the following items:
The following is a typical example:
| Accommodation Review Meeting Location: Main Conference room Date & Time: Friday14 April 2000 at 13.30 hrs Estimated Duration: One hour Attendees: Mr. D. Burkinshawe (Chairman) Mrs. S. Rodway Mr. J. Povey Mrs. A. Wilkinson (Required for item 5 only) Agenda Points: 1. Current building capacity 2. Projected accommodation capacity 3. Option of extending current building 4. Option of moving to new building 5. Estimated costs for both options 6. Any Other Business 7. Date for next Meeting Aims of Meeting: To determine which accommodation option is the most cost effective and make recommendations on how to proceed to the next phase. |
It is not always a requirement to have a full agenda. If the Meeting is one of a series of Meetings it is permissible to use the ‘Actions arising’ from the last Meeting as a controlling agenda with new items being introduced via ‘Any Other Business’.
3.4 Persons Invited to the Meeting
There is a tendency to invite everyone who has an interest in the topic being discussed. As shown above this in not cost effective. Any Meeting will have key members who will need to be in attendance for the complete Meeting but some people might be needed for only part of the Meeting. Look at the topics and decide who can be called in when required. If this is the case make sure those people can be called in when required.
3.5 Authority of meeting attendees
When the meeting is with a Customer it should be established if they have the authority to make contractual agreements and if not who is the authority. The same applies to the Company representative, it must be made clear what they can and can not agree.
If a request to agree something is made in a meeting and the item is beyond your authority you say that you do not have the authority. The next statement would be that you would take an action to get agreement, or not, from the necessary authority.
The person calling the Meeting has the responsibility for the following:
Usually the person calling the Meeting will also chair the Meeting. This is not always the case so you must make sure it is known, in advance, who is to be the Chairman.
The Chairman must ensure that the Meeting is controlled and follows the agenda. In any Meeting there is a tendency for some of the attendees to start talking on one topic and divert to another. If this happens the Chairman must curtail the diversion and return to the agenda. If the diversion opens a topic relevant but not covered by the agenda the Chairman will add it to ‘Any Other Business’ if considered necessary.
This action must be taken with prudence. In some cases it is worthwhile to allow the diversion to continue for a few Minutes before it is curtailed. Always try to end the diversion in a manner that is not abrasive and suggest that the topic is either discussed in a later item or will be added to ‘Any Other Business’
During the Meeting the Chairman will need to clarify points so that the Meeting Minutes correctly reflect the decisions taken in the Meeting. When a discussion has taken place and it appears that a point has been made, the Chairman is to summarise the point and ask the Meeting if the summary correctly reflects the agreement.
If the Chairman is not certain what the point is, the Meeting should be asked what summary they wish to be recorded in the Minutes.
If you have two people attending a meeting who are know to disagree and argue do not place them opposite each other. When sat opposite they have eye-to-eye contact, which will provoke argument. Sit them next to each other. They will still argue but it is more difficult to attack when the advisories do not have direct eye-to eye contact. If this is not possible put a neutral person or yourself between.
3.8.1 What is the difference between Meeting Notes and Minutes?
Meeting notes can be taken by anyone at the meeting. One designated person takes meeting minutes and the meeting minutes become the official and agreed record of the meeting.
If you are in a meeting and no one has been designated to take the Meeting Minutes then ask who is to take the minutes. If necessary offer to do them. This can give you an advantage, as the minutes will reflect the proceedings from your point of view. If you are not taking minutes do take notes. When the minutes for the meeting are presented for approval your notes will aid you in agreeing the minutes.
This is perhaps the most difficult part of a Meeting, at least for the person taking the Minutes. It is not possible to make any hard and fast rules as people use different methods and still obtain a good result. The main points to note are:
It should be noted that Minutes are required to reflect exactly what was discussed and stated at a Meeting. They must not contain items that did not take place in the Meeting. The only exception to this is a Post Meeting Note which is covered later.
Finally ensure the Minutes are written up as soon as possible. If left longer than 2 days your memory of the Meeting and the ability to decode your notes will fade rapidly.
3.8.3 Actions to minuted items
As the Meeting progresses Actions will be need to be taken on items discussed. Where an Action is required the person on whom the Action is to be placed must agree to the Action. There is one golden rule to remember when Actions are been placed. ‘An Action can not be placed on someone who is not present at the Meeting’ If there is a requirement to get someone, not present at the Meeting, to carry out an Action the Action must be placed on someone at the Meeting to ask that person to carry out the task.
During a meeting persons may wish to hand over documents, drawings etc. This action is called ‘Tabling’ and is to be recorded in the minutes. e.g. Mr Jackson tabled five copies of the requirement specification which were distributed to the members of the Meeting.
3.8.5 Notes for post Meeting events
Sometimes it is useful to add notes to the minutes which give an update to requested Actions as things have happened since the Meeting and the writing up of the meeting Minutes. These can be added but must be clearly identified as ‘Post Meeting Notes’ and be presented in a different Font size and be enclosed in brackets.
e.g. (POST MEETING NOTE: Mr Jones ordered the required Computers but has been informed that only three can be delivered now. The remaining seven will be delivered in three weeks time.)
3.9 Minutes from previous Meetings
If the Meeting is a continuation Meeting the first item on the agenda is the agreeing of the last Meeting Minutes (Section 1.0 ) followed by actions arising from last Meeting (Section 2.0). The Meeting will then go on to new items or Any Other Business.
3.9.2 Agreeing the last Meeting Minutes
This section is to be entered as section 1.0.
The attendees will have been circulated with the previous Meeting Minutes. The Chairman asks the Meeting if there are any errors and if not can the Minutes be agreed.
Corrections are usually incorrect spellings and typos. Occasionally there may be a request to change the sense of an entry or delete a section. If you are not in agreement with this request and both sides can not agree, both sides of the point are recorded as a minuted item. A statement would be made, in the new Minutes, 'This point could not be agreed so both statements from ???? and ???? are recorded in these minutes'. If this does cause some contention with proceedings you must add the item to Any Other Business so it can be discussed and an agreement made. If you agree the amendment it is recorded in the new Meeting Minutes but the old Minutes are not amended. This will usually result in the Minutes then being agreed. The statement ‘ Minutes to the Meeting <Day, Date etc>..were agreed ’ is made as an entry in the new Minutes.
3.9.3 Actions arising from Minutes
This section to be entered as section 2.0.
As each Action is come to in the Minutes it will fall into one of the following categories:
ACTION CLEARED
Each Action will have a name or names associated with it. It is these people who should report on each action as it is covered, unless someone is deputising for them.
Where Actions are carried forward they can be renumbered so that they gradually move towards section 2.1. In this manner long standing Actions are always the first items to be covered. An example of Meeting Minutes is given in the appendices.
The last topic on the agenda will be Any Other Business. Frequently this will have no entries. At the point where the Chairman believes that all topics have been covered each person present at the meeting is asked, in turn, if they have any other business they wish to discuss. When all answers are negative the Chairman will them ask the Meeting to agree the date for the next meeting, if applicable, and when this is done close the meeting.
The company should use a standard format for recording minutes to a meeting and this should conform to a minimum standard. Refer to the Company forms and procedures for available templates. Where a more formal approach is required an example is shown in the appendices to this document.
Hand-written Meeting Minutes are acceptable but are not the most convenient was of storing or distributing. Photocopies of hand-written Minutes are frequently difficult to read and in some cases open to interpretation. If you are unable to produce in electronic format it is advised that as soon as possible they are converted to electronic format.
When Minutes are taken on a project the project reference should be used and where possible a unique reference that does not rely on the date. Dates can sometimes be confused especially if a series of meeting are held aver a few days.
Referencing examples
Project Code – Design Meeting 01
Project Code – Customer Meeting 01
Administration – Buildings 01
Human Resource – Internal 01
etc
Appendices
Sample Minutes to Meeting No. 1
REF:Project Code – Customer Meeting 01
Minutes to Meeting
Company name & Customer
held at
<Location, Town>
<Day date year>
Present
Mr . R. Smith Customer - title
Mr. C. Jones Customer - title
Mr. D. Other Customer - title
Mr. C. Clarke Company - title
Mr. R. Segal Company - title
1.0 INTRODUCTIONS
1.1 Mr Smith introduced himself as the Systems Development Manager for Customer Train Management Systems.
1.2 Company tabled additional copies of the Customer terms of reference and the Company response.
1.3 Mr. Segal outlined the Company resources to be allocated to the project as follows:
Richard Segal - Project Manager.
Colin Clarke - Software Team Leader.
Mike Evans - Consultant for interfaces.
Dave Edwards - Consultant for specialist interfaces.
2.0 OUTLINE OF THE PROJECT
2.1 Customer pointed out that Project also included Safety and Operational Hazard Analysis, these were new areas that had to be considered. It was suggested that Mr. Segal ensured that the Safety Assurance team was included in the project.
ACTION: Include Safety Assurance in study – Richard Segal
2.2 Discussion took place on the contract. Company outlined the basic contract conditions received from Customer regions, for recent small contracts awarded to the Company. It was agreed that a draft contract was required as soon as possible and this would be obtained from Customer Procurement.
ACTION: Prepare details for draft contract – Richard Segal
2.3 The Form of Documentation was discussed. Customer had previously presented Company with documents which outlined the Customer standard documentation system using the CASE tool SYSTEM MANAGER, which was based on client server with GUPTA. Company asked if SYSTEM MANAGER could deal with ‘Process Flows’. Customer stated that it could. Mr Fred Smith, of Customer, was an expert in the use of the CASE tool. It was agreed that a Meeting would be set up with Fred Smith so that discussion could be held and agreement reached on the way forward.
ACTION: Set up Meeting with Fred Smith – Richard Segal
ETC.
4.3 The next Meeting was arranged for time, day, date and location
Minutes prepared by: R. Segal
<Day, date, year>
CIRCULATION
Those present at Meeting plus:
As necessary
Sample Minutes to Meeting No. 2
REF: Project Code – Customer Meeting 02
Minutes to Meeting
Company name & Customer
held at
<Location, Town>
<Day date year>
Present
Mr. C. Jones Customer - title
Mr. D. Other Customer - title
Mr. C. Clarke Company - title
Mr. R. Segal Company - title
Apologies Mr . R. Smith Customer
1.0 Minutes of Meeting (refer to last meeting minutes)
1.1 Mr Jones pointed out that the CASE tool referred to in section 2.3 was SYSTEM ENGINEER and not SYSTEM MANAGER.
1.2 With the above correction the Minutes were agreed.
2.0 Actions arising
2.1 ACTION 2.1: Include Safety Assurance in study
Mr Segal stated that this item was now covered by an entry in the study document.
ACTION CLEARED
2.2 ACTION 2.2 : Prepare details for draft contract
Mr Segal stated that this item had progressed but would not be completed for at least another week.
ACTION CARRIED FORWARD
2.3 ACTION 2.3: Set up Meeting with Fred Smith
The meeting had been arranged and was to take place on the day, date.
ACTION CLEARED
2.4 ACTION 2.8: Arrange visit to Transport Manager
This item had been frustrated by a change in the organisation of the Customers Management structure. It was agreed that this item could no longer be carried out.
ACTION TERMINATED
ETC.
3.2 The next Meeting was arranged for time, day, date and location
Minutes prepared by: R. Segal
<Day, date, year>
CIRCULATION
Those present at Meeting plus:
As necessary