Meeting Facilitation Guidelines

Meeting Flow:

Open meeting, Thank everyone for attending
If anyone is attending by phone, state the names of all attendees
Confirm who is taking the meeting minutes
Review the reason for the meeting and briefly review the agenda items
Proceed with the first agenda item
Introduce the topic
Discuss the topic
Determine if action or follow up is needed
Summarize the agenda item, ask for any questions
Move on to the next agenda item and repeat the process
After going over all agenda items and if time allows, ask the meeting participants for any additional relevant topics that they may wish to discuss
Recap all agreed upon action items or to do’s that were generated during the meeting
Be specific for each action item: who will complete it, when it will be completed, and if applicable, how it will be completed
Give timeline for when meeting participants will receive meeting minutes

Remember:

Encourage involvement from the meeting participants if ideas and discussion is needed.

If a goal of the meeting is to solve a problem or issue, you need to only pose the problem to the group first, and then ask for the participant’s ideas before voicing your own ideas. By speaking your idea first, it could make people feel less involved and it could limit possible creative solutions.

If a meeting participant wants to discuss an unrelated topic, in many cases (not all) it is best to discuss the option at the end of the meeting or in a separate conversation after the meeting is over.