Introductory Course on Organising Meetings: Tutorial Structure

Introductory Course on Organising Meetings: Tutorial Structure
Primary content development by Victor Paa Kwesi Mensah, view other contributors here

Objectives

This resource is an example curriculum outline for teaching about Organising Meetings. It may be suitable for teaching: a short course in organising meetings an introductory class in meeting management

Target Group
This course may target:

• Entry level Hospitality Management Learners
• Business Communication Students
• Meeting Associates
• Those Planning to be meeting professionals
• Any one with an interest and commitment to learn

Preknowledge

For Teacher: Ensure that you have gone through the basics of the topics before attemtping to develop your lesson notes Read through the links at the bottom of this page to familiarise yourself with the details of the topics. For the Learners: Leaners may need to familiarise themselves with what the basic definition or a meeting is. Have undergone/participated in a meeting before the points above however are not a mandatory prerequisite. A learner's interest may just be fine.

Apart from the target groups listed above, sometimes, its becomes necessary to organise a short tutorial for staff members and other stakeholders on meetings. The following structure may be helpful:

Step-by-Step Structure

Why do we have meetings?

Objectives

This section should lead the leaners in assessing the relevance of meetings in general with specific focus on a specific/project meetings (if necesary). Learners should be able to make convincing statements to justify the need to holf a meetings intead of usuing alternatives to meetings, e.g. letters. at the end on the sessions the importance of setting clear onjectives for organising meetings should be underscored

Activity

using the case study, discussion and presentation method, assist learners to underscore the importance of setting clear onjectives for organising meetings

Assignment

Using a specific example of an intended meeting: state the objectives make a justification for holding the meeting to the funders intended participants, and the meeting organisors (yourself)

What makes them effective?

Objectives

This session is to assist learners appreciate "what works" and "what does not work" in organising meetings

Activity

Use real meeting reports/scenarios to underscore elements of effective meetings

Types of Meetings

There are several categories of meetings. These may include

• Information Sharing/Gathering meetings,
• Decision-Making--Action meetings,
• Public and private meetings, etc.

Other types of meetings may include Conferences, conclaves, class, lectures, assemblyincentives, trade shows, symposia, forum,congress, panel, convention, clinics, retreat, workshops, seminars, etc.

Assignment

students to define the types of meetings above describe a recent meetings and identify which type most appropriatly descibes it

Meeting Formats

Additionaly, meetings may also be descibed as:

• One-Time Meeting or Recurring Meetings
• People-Based meeting or Technology-Based Setting
• Informal meeting or Formal meeting

Planning and Designing Meetings

A major concentration of content, time and effort should be devoted to this section.

Objectives

By the end of this session, learners should be able to: Describe the elements of planning for a meeting Developing an agenda and meeting content resources Determining the audience/participants at the intended meeting Determine the materials and equipment needed to organse a successful meeting Schedule the timing and sequencing of the meeting, including date selection time determination and sequencing Describe the logistics and processes leading to the meeting, including Venue selection Signage, maps Invitations, RSVPs, etc.

Assignment

Leaners to describe present an outline of the step-by-step processes and logistics they will use for the organisation of thier intended meeting (about a two-page report)

Conducting the Meeting

At this stage, all the plans developed above will be put into operation.

Objectives

By the end of this section, learners should be able to: Describe the Roles and Responsibilities of the Chair the Secretary (if any) the meeting organiser/cordinator the participants, and other stakeholders Decribe the importance of Communication before, during and after the meeting Explain the methods that can be employed to help stimulating discussions during the meeting Explain ways of preventing and managing Conflicts Describe the process of Decision-Making in meetings Describe how to treat Action items/Follow-up

Activity

In A Class ...Learners should Assume various roles of different stakeholders in a meeting Hold a fictional meeting for 30 minutes

After the meeting, the facilitator should guide the leaners to assess thier performance in playing the various roles in conducting the meeting. A special assesment should be made of the role of the chair and how this may be improved.

Evaluating Meeting Effectiveness

This section, although ignored by many, is essential in ensuring that the meeting indeed was effective, met objectives, and is justified.

Objectives

This section is to assist the learner to Underscore the importance of evaluating the effectiveness of a meeting be able to identify and use various evaluation tools and mechanisms in evaluating meetings underscore the importance of the "minutes" or "meeting report" as an evaluation tool

Assignment

Leaners to write a short evualuation report (3-4 pages) describing the meeting processes the meeting proceedings(the minutes), and an assessment of the meeting, with reccomendations. The following link may be helpfull.

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Summary

Provide summary of the lesson here!!

Web Resources

Effective Meetings.com The Meeting Wizard Basic Guide to Conducting Effective Meetings 3M Meeting Network The Virtual Meeting Assistance