Business Development Report: Organising Meetings at Wesfarmers Company

This report provides a comprehensive overview of meeting organization within the context of Wesfarmers, a multinational company. It begins by defining various types of meetings, such as inaugural, annual general, extraordinary general, and director/board meetings, along with their respective purposes. The report then outlines the legal and ethical requirements that must be considered when arranging meetings, including work health and safety regulations, public liability insurance, and ethical considerations like honesty, respect, confidentiality, and accountability. It further details the participants and requirements for different meeting types, including room arrangements, equipment, parking facilities, special dietary requirements, and meeting time considerations. Task 2 covers the information included in a notice of an AGM, relevant legislation, agenda structures, and the differences between formal and informal meetings. Task 3 focuses on templates for formal meetings, the process of recording minutes, evaluating meeting minutes, and the methods of dispatching minutes. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of well-organized meetings for effective communication and achieving organizational goals, referencing relevant literature throughout. This report is an insightful analysis of meeting organisation.

ORGANISE
MEETINGS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Types of meetings and their purposes...................................................................................3
1.2 Legal and Ethical requirements of meetings within an organisation:...................................4
1.3 Participants and requirements of a meeting along with room arrangements........................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Information included in a notice of a meeting for an AGM along with the legislation........5
2.2 Agendas of a meeting:...........................................................................................................6
2.3 Formal VS Informal Meetings:.............................................................................................7
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1 Template for formal meetings...............................................................................................7
3.2 Recording minutes................................................................................................................7
3.3 Evaluation of meeting minutes:............................................................................................8
3.4 Dispatching of minutes.........................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Meetings helps individuals to integrate their efforts, collaborate with other colleagues for
joint projects and sell their innovative ideas. The agenda of holding meetings in an organisation
is to accomplish plans, ideas and vision with other individuals that cannot be achieved by a
single person. The assignment below is based on Wesfarmers, a multinational company of
Australia which deals with chemical, retail, fertilisers and industrial products. The assignment
includes making arrangements for meetings, preparing and distributing documentation for
meetings and recording and producing minutes of meetings.
TASK 1
1.1 Types of meetings and their purposes.
Effective meetings are the ones which help the individuals to communicate with each
other to attain a profitable outcome.
Different circumstances in organisations require different types of meetings to be held.
The types of meetings held at Wesfarmers are mentioned below: Inaugural Meeting: This meeting is the very first meeting held in the new organisation at
its inception where the president or the leader of the organisation informs the employees
about the vision of the company. Annual General Meeting: Multinational companies like Wesfarmers need to hold an
annual general meeting. These are expected to be held at-least once every year. The
purpose of this meeting is to comply with legal requirements. These are held to present
audited accounts, to conduct elections for directors, or appointment of new auditors. Extraordinary general meetings: This meeting can also be termed as emergency general
meeting other than the regular AGM. These meetings are held on a short notice and
urgent matters regarding the firm are discussed. Director/Board meetings: These are regular meetings held between the board of directors
of a company. The purpose of these meetings is to manage the overall operations of the
company. In addition to this, all the major decisions about the firm are taken in these
meetings.

 Standing Committee: A committee is an elected group within an organisation to form to
manage special cases of the company. These meetings are held on a specific time in
which the committee members decide the policies needed to be followed for better
management of the organisation.
1.2 Legal and Ethical requirements of meetings within an organisation:
There are certain ethical and legal requirements that are required to be taken into
consideration before making any arrangement of meetings. These requirements are mentioned
below:
Legal Requirements:
The legal requirements that are needed to be complied by a company are mentioned
below:
 Work health and safety regulations.
 Provision of Public Liability Insurance
Ethical Requirements:
Behavioural expectations of the participants and meeting protocols are covered in ethical
requirements which are described below:
 Honesty
 Respect
 Confidentiality
 Accountability
Wesfarmers must comply with these requirements before setting up a meeting. Each of
these practices would help the firm encourage ethical practices within the organisation.
Employees will be engaged more and the firm could ensure better commitment from them. Any
meeting not following the legal and ethical practices would be considered invalid by law.
1.3 Participants and requirements of a meeting along with room arrangements
It is essential for any meeting to clarify the participants expected along with there
requirements. The participants and their expected requirements are mentioned below:
 Board Meetings: Along with board members, senior managers and external people
specifically invited for the purpose. Boardrooms must be chosen for these meetings with
oval or rectangular table.

 Annual General Meetings: Directors, shareholders and company members. Auditoriums
will be best suited for these meetings.
 Formal Meetings: The attendees are the employees and managers, and documentations
are required to be distributed to each member of the meeting. For these meetings,
boardrooms or conference rooms are two most viable options
 Meeting with external organisations: Depending on the firm, either the managers or the
board of directors are the potential participants of these meetings. Most apt options of
conducting these meetings would be boardrooms of the hosting company.
Requirements of the meetings:
There are special requirements needed by the participants which would impact the
timeline of the meeting. Moreover, success of meetings are dependant of these requirements.
 Equipments: Basic equipments essential for meetings are required by participants such
as DVD players, projectors, microphones, effective lighting arrangements, etc. These
equipments are necessary to conduct effective meetings and would encourage the
creativity of the participants present in the meeting.
 Parking Facilities: Sometimes participants need instructions to reach the venue.
Effective parking facilities would help them to leave their cars at a safe place and
signposts would help them reach the meeting on time.
 Special Dietary Requirements: The food supplied in the meeting must be prepared with
consideration to the participants health conditions. Their requirements must be duly
acknowledged by the company.
 Meeting Time: Meetings must be well planned and participants must be informed prior
to the meeting. In case the meetings get cancelled, the participants must get an immediate
information to avoid any mismanagement and inconvenience to the attendees.
In case a participant is physically disabled, the company in that case must have facilities
of slopes, elevators and wheelchairs for ease of that participant.
TASK 2
2.1 Information included in a notice of a meeting for an AGM along with the legislation.
The information that is included in a notice of AGM in Wesfarmers is mentioned below:
 Minutes of the previous meeting

 Financial reports of the year including, cash-flow statements, profit and loss statements,
forecasting statements, etc.
 CEO's reports regarding organisation's operations.
 Research reports of potential areas of investments.
The legislations included in Annual General Meeting:
 Under the Associations Incorporation Act, 1985 (SA), annual general meetings must be
held in prescribed associations.
 Annual General Meeting must be held within eighteen months of the incorporation of the
firm and after that within 5 months of the firm's financial year's end.
2.2 Agendas of a meeting:
Every meeting needs an agenda as it provides a framework for the leaders of the
organisations to effectively conduct a meeting. A sample agenda structure of Wesfarmers is
described below:
ATTENDEES CEO, Managers, Employees of the
organisation.
PURPOSE OF THE MEETING To formulate new cost effective methods
WELCOME Overview of the current position of the
company in the market
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING Summarising issues addressed at last meeting
TOPICS ADDED TO THE AGENDA New technological equipments
CORRESPONDENCE HANDED OUT Current financial reports, documentation of
new potential plans.
TOPICS UNDER DISCUSSION Employment of new equipments that would
help to cut the cost, addressing the CSR
objectives, enhancing the quality of
production.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING After 3 months

2.3 Formal VS Informal Meetings:
BASIS FORMAL MEETING INFORMAL MEETING
Number of participants Small as well as large group of
individuals
Mostly held on a one-on-one
basis or smaller groups.
Nature of occurrence Held in regular intervals Whenever an immediate
problem needs addressing.
Agenda Standing agenda distributed
beforehand
Flexible agenda
Additional Issues Generally room for additional
issues.
Only those issues decided
prior to meeting are discussed.
TASK 3
3.1 Template for formal meetings
MEETING MINUTES- WESFARMERS
LOCATION Company Headquarters
DATE 2nd November, 2018
TIME 10:00 a.m.
ATTENDANCE:
Managers and employees of HR team
AGENDA:
To review the current performance of employees
ACTION ITEMS:
1. Hiring new potential employees within 3 months

2. Revive the interview process with emphasis on written tests
OTHER NOTES: Introduction of effective training programs for the existing employees
3.2 Recording minutes
It is very essential to record the matters discussed in a meeting. Minute takers in an
organisation play a vital role regarding this.
Things in a meeting that should be recorded in a meeting are as follows:
 A summary of the matters addressed along with recommendations
 Issues raised at the meeting
 Who raised the issues
 A brief overview of the matters discussed in the meeting
 Action items
 Decisions taken at the end of the meeting
 Formal Motions
Things in a meeting that shouldn't be recorded in a meeting are as follows:
 Direct quotations must be avoided, along with the name
 Matters discussed that are not present in the agenda
3.3 Evaluation of meeting minutes:
It is very essential for minute taker of Wesfarmers to evaluate meeting minutes before
submitting for approval. These evaluation help to draw out and elaborate the main points of the
meeting for the managers to understand. It is needed to effectively summarise the meeting and
articulate all the important issues discussed in the meetings without any errors.
3.4 Dispatching of minutes
In Wesfarmers, it is required to dispatch meeting minutes after the meeting as soon as
possible. This is essential so that follow-up action could be taken by the recipients before next
meeting is conducted. These minutes can be dispatched using emails and other basic facilities
like hard copies via the firm's internal mailing system.

CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded that meetings are very important to facilitate a smooth working
environment of the organisation. There are different types of meetings held according to the need
and the matters to be discussed. Appropriate meetings along with a well room structured and
with compliance to legal requirements can help the firm to effectively address the issues and
generate profitable outcomes. Agendas of the meetings must be well stated prior to the meeting
to help the managers conduct the meeting in a systematic manner. The meeting minutes must be
described in a detailed manner for external users to understand the details of the meetings and its
outcomes clearly,
REFERENCES
Books and Journals