This could be another one of those posts that makes my head bobble off but lucky for you all, I am in my happy Friday place (no, no…I’m sober).

So the bobble-off-head version of me is out until Monday or so.

One of the tasks of most professional business days is the scheduling and/or attendance of meetings. Depending on your work environment these meetings could have any combination of the following:

1. Local participants in the same room.
2. Participants on conference call (speaker phone).
3. Participants logged into a web-based presentation.

I work for an international company so it is not uncommon for all three of these elements to be present for a meeting.

Regardless of HOW participants attend a meeting, I think that there are some very basic guidelines that the meeting chair and attendees should follow as much as possible.

1. Respect my time. As a meeting scheduler it is important for you to schedule meetings with the appropriate people. If you are unsure of whether or not I need to be in attendance have a conversation with me prior to the meeting.
2. Respect my time - part two. Start your meetings within five minutes of the scheduled start time. In my work environment it is common for individuals to have back to back meeting. I cannot reasonably leave a meeting at the top of the hour and get to another conference room on another floor at the exact same time. Give participants time to migrate between spaces but once that five minute mark hits - SHOW TIME!
3. Think outside of the box. Or in this case, think off the standard clock. I have a Director that schedules all meetings for 54 minutes. That allows individuals in HIS meeting to get out and to their next meeting on time. BRILLIANT.
4. Plan ahead. If you need a notetaker coordinate that prior to the meeting starts. Do not assume someone will arrive prepared to take notes for you.
5. Know your limits. It is next to impossible to Chair a meeting AND take meeting notes AND be effective. You can do two of the three, but not all three. I’ll let you decide which two you would prefer to do.
6. Don’t be a doofus. Respect the work culture of your international counterparts. If you don’t know the work style in their particular country study it. Do not assume anything. Do your home work.
7. Make your meetings all-inclusive. Make sure anyone that is dialed in via web-based conference or conference call feels as though they are truly a part of the meeting.
8. PREPARE AN AGENDA! PREPARE AN AGENDA! PREPARE AN AGENDA! Bonus points for sending it out with the original meeting invite so I know precisely what you want to discuss. Putting PROJECT NAME :: REQUIREMENTS Q&A in the subject line tells me bupkis. Give me some info so I can come to your meeting prepared.
9. Close the meeting with a recap of decisions made, action items and next steps.
10. Bring cookies. OK. This is a soft requirement. A total nice-to-have. But do keep this in mind: the atmosphere of your meetings is important. If you are a barky drill master the attendance of meeting invitees will reflect your level of assholetry.
11. Respect standard work hours. Meetings should not start at 8am or end at 5pm unless absolutely necessary. Respect the fact that people have lives outside of the office as much as possible. Truly, this is a challenge if not impossible when working with international counterparts but do be flexible and respectful AND appreciative when scheduling someones time outside of standard business hours.

That’s my quick list of meeting guidelines. What’s on yours?