Running meetings

Organisations need to have meetings to make decisions, to share information and to meet certain requirements. These meetings might be large formal meetings such as annual general meetings (AGM). They might be management committee meetings or general meetings that also involve members. You will probably also have other less formal staff meetings to help plan the work of your organisation.

The Associations Incorporation Act and the organisation’s rules describe how often some of these meetings must be held, who needs to attend, what will need to be discussed and how decisions will be made. The Act also describes what information needs to be kept about the meeting and/or provided to the Office of Fair Trading. For less formal meetings, you will have more choice about these decisions.

Writing an agenda

Although your meetings might be held for different reasons and may have different requirements, all meetings can all follow similar guidelines. One of the first things you will need to do is write an agenda or list of what you want to talk about during the meeting.

If you are the person preparing the agenda, you might want to ask everyone who is invited if there are other things that they think should be included. Once the agenda is completed, it is a good idea to send it to everyone who is coming to the meeting so they understand what is going to be discussed.

The agenda for most meetings will include some/all of the following items:

  • name, date, time and place of the meeting
  • names of the people invited to the meeting
  • names of the people who were invited but could not attend
  • copy of the minutes or notes from the last meeting, if needed
  • list of the items that will be discussed
  • any other documents that will help with the discussion such as reports or letters

You will need to ensure that there is enough time to discuss the items on the agenda and might want to list them in order of importance. There might also be other important things that come up at the meetings, so some of the less important items might have to be discussed at another time.

Some meetings will have special items that need to be discussed. For most meetings, especially formal meetings, the chairperson will ask for the minutes of the last meeting to be accepted as correct. Often agenda items will continue to be discussed for several meetings, especially for ongoing work. The chairperson will lead the meeting through each action or task that was decided in the previous meeting, to find out what has been achieved.

The annual general meeting agenda will also need to include reports from the chairperson and treasurer and the election of the management committee.  Management committee meetings will usually include a treasurer’s report and information about the work being done by staff on the agenda.

Preparing for a meeting

As well as writing and sending out the agenda, you might also want to organise a number of other things that can help make your meeting run well.  Depending on how long the meeting will be and who is invited, you might want to organise something to eat and drink, name tags, provide childcare, decide whether you will need an interpreter and have enough copies of any reports or letters for everyone. You might also need to allow some time to set up tables and chairs.

It is usually helpful to think about who will take notes or the minutes during the meeting. This is important so that everyone who attended can have a record of what was discussed and decided. For some meetings including the management committee meetings and the annual general meeting, this will be the secretary and you are required to keep the minutes under the Associations Incorporation Act.

Getting the most out of your meeting

A successful meeting is one that is run well by following good meeting procedures and will usually lead to good decision-making, especially for large meetings. For meetings such as management committee meetings and annual general meetings, some of these procedures will be described in the organisation’s rules and the Act.

These rules will also describe how decisions are made. For large or formal meetings, this might involve someone putting forward their point of view which is also known as a motion, another person might formally support them, and then the group votes. There may also be rules about the percentage of votes needed for a decision. Other meetings might not involve a formal vote but reaching a decision that suits everyone.

The person responsible for making sure that the procedures are followed is usually the chairperson. For management committee meetings and annual general meetings, the chairperson is generally the president of the organisation. For other smaller meetings, the chairperson can be anyone who agrees to run the meeting.

To ensure that the meeting is run well, the chairperson will need to:

  • understand all the items on the agenda
  • estimate how long should be spent discussing each
  • allow everyone to say what they think without being interrupted
  • make sure the discussion is limited to the agenda items
  • briefly describe what has been discussed so that everyone understands
  • ask the meeting to make a decision and ensure that it is written down
  • make sure everyone agrees about who is going to do what
  • make another meeting time, if there is not enough time to discuss all the items

Further information:

Note: You can access the following information by registering at the Management Support Online website.

Last updated 2008-02-21