Civil Engineering is one of the tough profession. Not only in site but at the office you need to conduct several planning meetings and regularly need to update yourself and your team. If you are not well planned and well prepared with time then you will surely get out of the race due to high competition. Mostly, you need to conduct various meetings with company staff. So in this article, we especially focused on the topic of how to conduct an effective planning meeting.
Meeting is the formal gathering of a number of people with a certain purpose. The meeting is called by sending a notice stating the agenda.
Why did you need to set an agenda?
Agenda is an official list of important points to be discussed at a particular meeting. A meeting must be chaired by a person under whom the meeting shall be conducted. The meeting must be called by an authorized person. Generally, the general secretary of the company is authorized to call the meeting.
The official records of discussions held and decisions taken at a meeting are called minutes. Every important discussion, suggestions, recommendations, decisions in the meeting must be noted down in minutes, which must be signed by the members to make it valid.
Minutes in-fact is a special type of summary of what happened at a meeting.
Before signing the minute it was read. A minute is a valid document, it may be used as proof later on. Certain quorum or number of members must be present in the meeting to make it valid. A meeting must focus on the agenda. The meeting ends with a vote of thanks to all the members.
10 rules for the effective planning meeting
- Convene a meeting when it is essential to consult others for taking action/decision. Hold a meeting when consultations on the telephone would not yield the desired result.
- Invite only those staff who are essential for the meeting.
- Insist on punctuality.
- Be clear about the objective of the meeting.
- Prepare an agenda breaking into important issues to be discussed and circulate it giving adequate time for members to prepare for the meeting.
- Set a time limit for the discussion of each item on the agenda.
- Do not deviate from the agenda unless important.
- Try to give time for every participant, stop a participant politely if he is speaking too much reminding him about time.
- Conclude the meeting briefly with important points.
- Close the meeting with a pleasant note, indicating the future course of action.
Also Read: Key points to know before writing a proposal
Interact with your staff, get their views and make plans which are suitable for your office after the meeting.