English Learning: Practical Guide to Organizing Meetings and Writing Agendas

Welcome back. In this lesson, we'll continue our introduction to meetings by looking at how to organize a meeting and write an agenda. Here are the learning objectives. By the end of this lesson, you'll be able to write an agenda and identify what to include in an email setting up a meeting. Have you ever had to set up a meeting? How was it? Did you enjoy doing it? Actually, I think a lot of people don't really look forward to organizing meetings. Probably the main reason is that we have to try to find a time when everybody is available to meet, which is often the most difficult part. But once we've agreed on a time, we can just follow some guidelines to make sure that people come to the meeting prepared and ready to participate. So let's talk about what we need to do.

First, let's take an example from a company. Karen is the chief marketing officer at Rainier Chocolates. She calls Eric, a member of her team, and leaves a voicemail. Karen wants Eric to arrange a meeting. What does Eric need to do? Listen to the message for details about when, what, and who. Write notes. Hey Eric, Karen here. I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to be out of the office for about 10 days and wanted to ask if you could organize a team meeting for the first week of next month. As well as our regular updates, I'd like us to discuss the remodel of the North Lake store. We need to give input on which design we prefer. I'd also like us to decide if we need more money in our budget, so it would be good if you could invite Lauren to join us too. Thanks and let me know if you have any questions; you can call me on my cell. See you in two weeks. So Eric has to organize a team meeting for next month. They will have short updates and then discussions about the remodel of the North Lake store and the budget. Lauren will also be invited.

Now let's talk about what he needs to do to set up the meeting. First, we need to know what kind of meeting it is and what the purpose is. Then we should decide who the attendees or participants are. In addition to the members of the team, Karen also told Eric to invite Lauren. So the next step is to find a date and time for the meeting. In some organizations, meetings are often set up through scheduling software such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook. Employees are required to post their schedules on a calendar so that the organizer of a meeting can easily see when people are available. But sometimes this might not be possible. Some people might not be good at keeping their schedule up to date, and if you're inviting someone from outside the organization or team, they might not use the same software. In our example, Eric is going to try to find a time without using software and is going to send an email.

Read the email that he sends. What do you notice that was good about his email? You can pause the video to give yourself enough time to read. When you have finished, continue with the lesson and we will look at how to organize the email and what language to use. You probably noticed several good things about the email. So let's look at the organization and language in more detail. First, the subject line is clear: Scheduling next month's team meeting. If you took course one in our specialization, you'll remember that a subject line should be a noun phrase that tells the reader what the email will be about. Next, there is an appropriate greeting for an email to a group of people. "Hi everyone" is informal because most of the people that Eric is inviting work together in the same team. We could also use "team." Also remember from our first course on networking that we can just begin an email without a greeting. The purpose of the email is then in the first line. Here are some examples of how we can do this: I need to schedule next month's team meeting. I'd like to set up a meeting for next week. I'm trying to arrange a meeting for sometime next week. I want to find a time for us to meet.

Notice the verbs we can use with the word meeting: schedule, set up, and arrange. Then we need to try to organize the time. In this case, Eric chose a date and time and asked if this would be okay. Here are some phrases you could use to suggest a time and then check. I'd like to propose Monday, May 2 at 10 a.m. How about Thursday afternoon at 2? Would Wednesday at 9 work for everyone? Sometimes you might want to give some choices and ask which one people prefer. Here are some options: Let me know what you think. Which of these days and times work for you? Let me know which of these dates you prefer. Also, you could ask people to give you suggestions of the best time. Please let me know when you are available. When is a good time for you? Can you give me some time when you are free? Of course, asking for suggestions is more complicated because all of you need to agree on the best time. It's also a good idea to give people a deadline for letting you know about the date. Could you let me know by tomorrow if that doesn't work for you? We use "by" a time to say that we want something done before that time.

Once the time has been arranged, we need to decide on the location. You'll need to think about how many people will be there and also what equipment will be needed. You should also decide what handouts are necessary. In our example, Eric has decided that the large conference room on the fourth floor is best because it has a data projector and a flip chart. So now we know the kind of meeting, the time, the location, the attendees, and what equipment is needed. The next step is to prepare the agenda. As we learned in our previous lesson, having an agenda can help a meeting be successful. So let's see how to create one. First, an agenda should include the title of the meeting at the top. This lets people know what kind of meeting it will be. Look at these two examples. In the first example, you can see the type of meeting. Sometimes in more formal meetings, you would also include the name of the company, like in the second example. Then you should write the details of the meeting: the date, time, and location. The people who have been invited to attend the meeting will be listed next as attendees.

Below this, in more formal meetings, there might be a space to list anyone who will not be attending the meeting. They will have informed the meeting organizer beforehand that they will not be able to attend. This can be listed as excused or apologies. Next, we list the items to be covered in the meeting. In a more formal decision-making meeting, for example a board meeting, the minutes of the previous meeting will often need to be approved, and that usually happens at the start of the meeting. However, this is not common in normal business meetings. In regularly scheduled meetings, there is often time for people to give updates or make announcements. This is usually listed as reports or simply updates. Next, we continue with the main items. Remember, as we learned in the previous lesson, each item should be clear so that the participants will know what they're going to be talking about. Usually, the headings for items on the agenda start with nouns like discussion, update, or vote.

Having a single noun like discussion won't give you much information. You need to add details like "discussion on something" or "vote on something." You can add how much time you think will be needed for each item to help the organizer run the meeting efficiently. If a particular person will be responsible for talking about an item, you can list his or her name too. This means the person won't be surprised when he or she is asked to lead the discussion at the actual meeting. Sometimes you can include a question to help focus people's attention on what the outcome of the discussion will be. For example, "Which design do we prefer?" Instead of a question, you could use a statement of the outcome of the discussion. For example, "Decide whether to request an increase in our marketing budget." However, you should be consistent: either use all questions or all statements if you decide to do this. At the end of a meeting, there is often some time for participants to talk about anything that wasn't listed on the agenda at the start. This is often listed as new business. Sometimes instead, we can list it as announcements. At the end of the agenda, you can leave space for action items. Remember, these will be things that people will do after the meeting based on what was decided. If you have several items on the agenda to discuss, you could also include space for the action item after each one.

So let's review what is necessary for planning a meeting. We decide what kind of meeting it will be and the goal of the meeting. We identify the people to invite. Then, based on their schedules, we decide on a time and location. We might have to find out what time is best by emailing the people involved. We prepare any necessary equipment and then we write up an agenda. So that wasn't too bad, was it? To end this part of the lesson, you'll now take a short practice quiz on the guidelines and language for setting up a meeting.