Chairing A Meeting For Business - Top Ten Tips

Aug 11
10:17

2007

Anne Hickley PhD

Anne Hickley PhD

  • Share this article on Facebook
  • Share this article on Twitter
  • Share this article on Linkedin

This article provides ten top tips for chairing a meeting. Some may seem obvious but all relate to mistakes I have seen chairpersons make, or made myself!

mediaimage
• Make sure you have clear aims and objectives for the meeting – many meetings are held in businesses for no better reason than that that’s what they’ve always done each month. That’s just not effective. • Make sure the meeting has an agenda and that this has been issued to all participants in advance • Make sure you have allocated a dedicated minute taker to the meeting and that that person understands their role • If you have a large number of participants make simple rules and list them before you start e.g. everyone must put up their hand and be indicated by the chair before speaking (to stop people all speaking at once.) • If this is a follow-up or on-going meeting make sure that the first point on the agenda is going through the action points listed on the previous minutes. • If actions have not been carried out this may or may not be the time to find out why. If there is a later point on the agenda that will explain why an action has not been carried out,Chairing A Meeting For Business - Top Ten Tips Articles state firmly that this point will be discussed on agenda point 5 (or whatever the relevant number is). • Keep people on topic. It’s easy for discussions to become impassioned and roam off to other topics. Firmly state that these issues will either be discussed later in the meeting or are not relevant to the meeting. • Don’t lose your temper! It is vital that the chair keeps a cool head in order to maintain order in the meeting. • At the end of the meeting ask the minute taker if s/he has any points that need clarifying. This gives the minute taker an opportunity to check details on the spot, and minutes can then be issued more quickly. • Check the meeting minutes before issuing them, or having them issued, to the other participants and any team members who were absent.

Article "tagged" as:

Categories:

Also From This Author

Transcription - Get Digital Recording Equipment That's Right For Your Needs

Transcription - Get Digital Recording Equipment That's Right For Your Needs

This article explains the different features available for recorders, what they’re for and how they will (or won’t) be of use to you, as someone who is recording for transcription. The different features are listed and then explained, and this should allow you to choose a machine that’s right for you and your transcriptionist. As any visit to a good website or shop selling these machines will show you, this is not a comprehensive list. It’s a list of the most important aspects for transcription.
Transcription for Oral History Projects – Is It Necessary?

Transcription for Oral History Projects – Is It Necessary?

Collecting oral histories has become increasingly popular over the last few years, with the improvements in audio technology allowing good quality digital recordings to be made. Certainly listening to recordings of people reflecting on a specific area of their past is a fascinating experience, and with the improvements in digital technology it is now possible to (relatively) easily edit recordings, but a transcribed written version is still important. This article explains why.
Transcription – will it be replaced by voice recognition software?

Transcription – will it be replaced by voice recognition software?

This article indicates a number of reasons why transcription will not be replaced by voice recognition software, at least for the foreseeable future. Well, maybe as a professional transcriptionist I could be considered biased, but there are issues with voice recognition software that I don't think will be solved in the next few years.