Chairing Meetings - A CV Centre Guide

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Meetings have the potential to be ideal opportunities for brainstorming new initiatives, improving communication, increasing morale and motivation, resolving conflicts or issues and enhancing a feeling of team spirit. However, the reality can be somewhat different. Meetings are not always popular activities for those expected to attend because they can seem tedious and irrelevant events, merely eating into time which could have been spent upon existing workloads. So, when you are organising a meeting, it is important to consider exactly why the meeting is necessary. Without a clear purpose, you may find delegates are unwilling to attend or de-motivated if they do make it to the meeting. On the other hand, successful meetings are purposeful, well planned and organised and lead to positive action being taken as a result. Fortunately, there are some key tips and guidelines which you can follow to aid the success of meetings you need to chair.

Selecting the Date, Time and Venue

If you want to see good attendance levels at your meeting, you will need to ensure the date is suitable for the key delegates and that its location is easily accessible to all. If possible, liaise with the delegates well in advance of the proposed date to try to ensure maximum attendance. However, whilst the schedule of your delegates is important, it may also be necessary to reiterate the importance, relevance and degree of urgency of the proposed meeting, so that delegates can reschedule other less urgent commitments if required.

If the meeting is a brief, internal affair, the venue you select will probably be within your own building or at a location close by. Alternatively, some meetings may be better suited to an external venue such as a hotel with conference facilities. If this is the case, the time you choose for the meeting will be dictated to some extent by the time it will take for the delegates to reach the venue. Additionally, the time you set for the conclusion of the meeting should allow for people to be able to get home at a reasonable hour. If many of the delegates have to travel some distance to reach the meeting, you may want to consider providing overnight accommodation on the eve of the meeting. This can help to build a rapport between the delegates whilst also allowing for an early start and, hopefully, a reasonable finishing time.

Set the Agenda

To ensure the success of a meeting, it is important that there is a clear purpose and agenda. A list of exactly which objectives the meeting is intended to achieve should be prepared in advance and distributed to all delegates - along with details of when and where the meeting will take place and who else will be in attendance. This enables those attending to make any necessary preparations and to make notes of anything they wish to discuss in relation to the items on the agenda. It can be useful to provide estimates of timescales for each item on the agenda, so that delegates are aware of how much they can realistically contribute to the debate. Ideally, the most urgent items should be placed at the top of the agenda.

The agenda distributed in advance of the meeting, should also invite delegates to submit any other topics they would like to propose for discussion. In this way items from delegates can be included in the final agenda, whilst also eliminating the need to “throw open” the meeting for other issues - something which can play havoc with even the most well-planned agenda.

Prepare the Venue

It is usually very useful to arrive at the venue well in advance of the other delegates. This will enable you to ensure the layout is appropriate and that all necessary equipment and materials are in place. Generally, the number of people attending the meeting will dictate the seating arrangement. You can opt for rows of seats, a horseshoe layout or simply one long table in the centre of the room. Whichever format you choose, the position of the chairperson is imperative. Everybody in the audience needs to be able to clearly see the chairperson and any visual aids being used. All lighting and electrical equipment needs to be checked to ensure they are in full working order and projectors or flip-charts need to be positioned appropriately.

If the meeting is being held at an external venue, you should make sure you have introduced yourself to the staff and confirmed that refreshments have been organised, if appropriate. It is also important to familiarise yourself with the locations of the toilets and emergency exits.

Once you are satisfied the venue has been set up correctly, you are then able to begin to create a productive working atmosphere by meeting and greeting the delegates and putting them at their ease as they arrive.

Opening the Meeting

Ideally, the meeting should always start on time to ensure you have control of proceedings from the outset. It is, however, acceptable to put back the start of the meeting in the event of a key delegate being unavoidably delayed.

You should open the meeting by introducing yourself as the chair and the other delegates in attendance. Apologies should also be made for those who have been unable to attend. The purpose of the meeting should be reiterated, to ensure that everyone is focused on what you hope to achieve. Briefly run through the agenda, explain when breaks and any refreshments will be served and announce when you hope to have concluded the meeting by.

Controlling the Meeting

The role of the chair is not only to ensure the meeting runs to schedule, but also to encourage all delegates to make a valuable contribution. Some people may feel uncomfortable voicing their opinions in front of a group, and so it is the responsibility of the chair to spot body language which indicates a delegate has something they wish to add to the debate, but are reluctant to do so. The chair should also stimulate healthy debate on each item on the agenda, so that diverse ranges of opinions are heard before an item is concluded. It can also be useful to invite questions from delegates to make sure that everybody fully understands what has been discussed before moving on to the next item on the agenda.

It is of course possible that confrontations will take place in meetings, and it also falls under the chair’s remit to ensure that these are handled effectively and are not allowed to have too great an impact on the agenda. If necessary, try to move on to the next item on the agenda and, if appropriate, agree that an investigation can be carried out into the contentious issues after the meeting has been concluded.

Once each item on the agenda has been discussed, the whole meeting should be summarised and points that need to be followed up should be clarified. The chair is responsible for ensuring notes are taken throughout the meeting and that follow-up tasks are allocated to appropriately. If necessary, a further meeting should be arranged before the meeting is brought to a close.

Follow Up

The notes taken by the chair throughout the course of the meeting should be transcribed into clear and concise minutes for distribution to all those who attended, those who were not able to make it to the meeting, and all other relevant parties. All actions that were agreed upon should be emphasised with the person responsible for dealing with each one clearly named on the minutes. The chair should then ensure that all of these actions are completed in accordance with the deadlines that were agreed.

The success of subsequent meetings is likely to be dictated by the level of activity that followed the initial meeting. If action proposed in the meeting is rigorously followed up, and positive action taken as a result of the meeting, delegates are likely to perceive future meetings as useful, meaningful events which aid their working life and productivity, rather than merely as an additional burden to their workload.

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