MANAGEMENT VOCABULARY 6 MEETING

MEETINGS

Meeting others is just a part of our day-to-day living. Only a hermit sits in silence shunning the company of lesser mortals like me and you. For several purposes,we have to meet others. But here, I like to deal with formal meetings. Ok?

MEETING, in the context of organizations, is the coming together of a number of persons for a specific purpose.

A Manager can not afford to waste time. For that matter,none can afford it. Even me and you. When somebody gives me an appointment at 10 am and does not turn up, I get wild.

TIME OF A MEETING

Every meeting commences at a particular time. No vagueness about it. The general body meeting of our housing society will commence at 11 am.

PLACE

Every meeting has to take place at a specified place. It is called VENUE.  Venue actually means a place where an event takes place. One talks of the venue of a birthday party or wedding and so on. So there is a venue for a formal meeting.

AGENDA

Every formal meeting will have an AGENDA.  What is it is? The list of points to be discussed in the meeting is called AGENDA. Even before the meeting takes place, the agenda is circulated to the participants of the meeting. The idea is that the participants know beforehand what issues are to be discussed in the meeting. Otherwise, there will be waste of time.

How a meeting is conducted?

Every formal meeting will be presided over by a person. So there is a PRESIDENT for every formal meeting. He chairs the meeting. The secretary in charge welcomes the participants. He requests the President to preside over and conduct the meeting. The President conducts the meeting keeping in mind the agenda. One by one, the points are discussed. The participants are allowed to express their views on the points in the agenda. If all the participants agree on a course of action,we say that there is total consensus on that point. Otherwise there will be discussion.After eliciting the views of the majority,a decision will be taken. Remember, democratic process is important.

There may be voting to find out the majority view. One member or participant may request the President to record his dissent.  Dissent means he is not agreeing with the majority view.

MINUTES OF A MEETING

The proceedings of a meeting are recorded. Such a record is called MINUTES. " to minute " is a verb.  It means " to record". A dissenting note is also minuted. After the minutes are prepared, they are circulated among the members for approval.  The minutes are forwarded by the concerned person to all who are concerned with the implementation of the decisions taken.

I have given you a very broad idea of how a meeting is conducted. Hope you find this useful. My intention is that you should have a very clear idea of the terms used in connection with any meeting.

That is all for now.

Rest in my next post.

T K Jayaraman

27/02/2015