Resources: Meeting Management Principles

Pay close attention to details, including the room arrangement, lighting, sound system, heating or cooling, availability of note pads and pencils, audiovisual aid equipment, appearance of the meeting room, and all preparatory details necessary to make attendees comfortable and ready to concentrate. No detail should escape notice of professional meeting planners.
Send out early notices for a meeting if possible and then follow up by telephoning participants to remind them of the time and place.
Start on time--end on time. Do not penalize those who come early by making them wait for those who arrive late. Gain a reputation among members that the starting time on the meeting notices are when the chair starts the meeting.
Set an ending time and aim for it. If attendees know that the meeting is supposed to be over in one hour, they will conduct themselves in a manner to accomplish that goal.
Make certain that a formal agenda is available for all to see at the beginning of the meeting. An agenda should be a working tool that allows the moderator to move the conduct of the meeting forward without wasting time and energy on unrelated or irrelevant subjects.


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Meeting Management Principles Pay close attention to details, including the room arrangement, lighting, sound system, heating or cooling, availability of note pads and pencils, audiovisual aid equipment, appearance of the meeting room, and all preparatory details necessary to make attendees comfortable and ready to concentrate. No detail should escape notice of professional meeting planners. Send out early notices for a meeting if possible and then follow up by telephoning participants to remind them of the time and place. Start on time--end on time. Do not penalize those who come early by making them wait for those who arrive late. Gain a reputation among members that the starting time on the meeting notices are when the chair starts the meeting. Set an ending time and aim for it. If attendees know that the meeting is supposed to be over in one hour, they will conduct themselves in a manner to accomplish that goal. Make certain that a formal agenda is available for all to see at the beginning of the meeting. An agenda should be a working tool that allows the moderator to move the conduct of the meeting forward without wasting time and energy on unrelated or irrelevant subjects.

	*From Business Associations for the 21st Century, Larry S. Milner, CAE, Editor, 1999, p. 61. Used with permission of the Center for International Private Enterprise.