How often have you attended a meeting and wished you could be spending your time more productively?  Perhaps some changes are in order for the new year for you or your colleagues. MENC member Dee Hansen offers suggestions for better meetings.

Often phone and conference calls, video conferencing, e-mails, blogs, and other media can be effective means of doing business without leaving the work environment. Sometimes, however, you need to meet face-to-face.

If you're bringing people together for meetings, whether the meeting is onsite or off, be considerate of how time is used, whether the objectives of the meeting are clearly stated and organized, and how the meeting itself is conducted.

When preparing for a meeting, remember that the attendees are busy people who appreciate clear instructions and a concise agenda. The following checklists can help.

Meeting Notification

• Meeting date, time, and location
• Directions to location
• Parking arrangements, where to enter the building
• Any advanced preparation needed or materials to bring
• Meal arrangements and attire, if needed
• If out-of-town participants, directions, overnight accommodations, etc.
• Draft agendas should be included in meeting notification
• Use electronic scheduling such as Meeting Wizard for large groups if needed.
   

Agendas

• Opening statement—reason for attendance, objectives of the meeting, ground rules, and time commitment
• Assign a note or minute taker. For public minutes, use large chart paper or computer with projector
• Review of old business
• Overview of the problems/tasks or information/reports to be shared
• Generate ideas and solutions, solve problems, plan schedules
• Assignment of tasks—who will do what and when
• Follow-up procedures—any logistics, research, approvals to be made
• Summary of the meeting, what has been accomplished and agreed upon
• Adjournment.
   

Often time allotments are assigned to the various items in a meeting. Time spent on each item depends on the flexibility of the leader and the time constraints of the meeting itself. Sometimes brainstorming or problem-solving requires discussion and reflection.

If the topic at hand is so complex that it cannot be resolved in a single meeting, it’s advisable to break down the task in manageable chunks so that participants know that something has been accomplished though further steps are needed to complete the entire task. Assigning “homework”—that is, sending participants home with specific duties—can be a productive approach. Setting deadlines for when the work should be submitted is critical as well.

MENC member Dee Hansen is chair of graduate studies in music education at The Hartt School, University of Hartford, West Hartford, Connecticut.

Next week:  Effective Meetings, Part 2—Objectives

--Ella Wilcox, January 6, 2010, © MENC: The National Association for Music Education (www.menc.org)