The need for business meetings is obvious – the need to assess the constantly changing situation and state of affairs, develop solutions and coordinate the activities of the organization’s personnel. This article will analyze the peculiarities of organizing board meetings.
Types of business meetings: formal vs. informal
Modern business is impossible without various kinds of negotiations. Business meetings allow management to convey the main goals and objectives to all structural divisions at once, receive feedback and adjust the company’s action plan based on the data received. Meetings are a kind of business management tool that constantly needs to evaluate the effectiveness and analyze results.
Business meetings are held to find a specific solution to an actual problem or task. In addition, at meetings, employees of departments can share their ideas with management on possible solutions to any issues. This form of communication allows you to comprehensively see the company’s situation, strengths, and weaknesses. Furthermore, it promotes the entry of new people into the team, their acquaintance with the corporate culture, and the norms adopted in the organization.
The are two basic types of business meetings:
- A formal meeting is characterized by the presence of rules and procedures, predictability, the presence of a chairman and secretary, and an agenda. It is characterized by the preliminary distribution of meeting documents to the participants, and a written decision or meeting minutes are drawn up. Formal meetings only seem boring at first glance. In fact, they give more guarantees of democracy. The rules are clearly defined, understood, and accepted by all participants. Each participant can express their opinion on any issue on the agenda. Decisions are recorded, and their implementation is monitored.
- An informal meeting is held without adhering to rules, an agenda, a chairman, and a secretary. When holding such meetings, the influence of the emotional factor increases. More influential and self-confident participants dominate the rest. Most often, informal meetings are held by lower-level managers when they do without unnecessary formalities.
The types of formal meetings differ in their goals and the expectations that participants are entitled to have concerning these goals, levels of authority and responsibility, and the rules of conduct. The formal meetings can be divided into:
- meeting of shareholders
- meeting of the board of directors
- management meeting
- committee meeting.
The peculiarities of the board meetings
The board meeting is a larger form of communication, which, as a rule, involves the member of the board of directors or shareholders of the company to address strategic business development issues. Such formal meetings are convened yearly to approve the results for the past year, elect a new board of directors, support the balance sheet, and resolve other issues. In companies with permanent collegiate bodies, there should be a standard procedure for holding meetings, which defines the frequency of meetings and all procedures for preparing and conducting, indicating the officials responsible for each procedure. Such collegiate bodies have a secretary, whose main responsibility is preparing and maintaining meetings and keeping records of this collegiate body.
According to the current rules, the board meeting is held in several stages:
- A decision is made to hold a meeting with the appointment of date, time, and place where the meeting will take place.
- A list of participants is compiled.
- Participants send notifications that a meeting will be held.
- A meeting of participants is held, during which a protocol is drawn up.
- The meeting results are drawn up following the requirements of the law.
But in modern reality, most companies use board portals for running online board meetings.