Administrative Support for Meetings: A Comprehensive Guide

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Unit - 32: Provide Administrative
Support for Meetings
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Contents
AC 1.1..............................................................................................................................................3
AC 1.2..............................................................................................................................................5
AC 1.3..............................................................................................................................................6
AC 1.4..............................................................................................................................................8
AC 1.5............................................................................................................................................10
AC 1.6............................................................................................................................................12
AC 1.7............................................................................................................................................14
AC 1.8............................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17
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AC 1.1
Describe the purpose of the meetings and who needs to attend.
A meeting is the gathering of the people who come together to discuss the problems, to make
collaborations, to enhance the communication, to make deals and offer within or outside the
organization. Meetings are held to solve the problems or find solutions to achieve the goal and
objective. The meeting can happen for any reason, it (Kaplin, et.al, 2019) can also be conducted
to make strategies and policies of the organization. It can also help to see the progress of the
project or the launching of a new product. Meetings have a general-purpose where the exchange
of the information and sources happen. Meeting should always be conducted keeping the goal
and objective which need to be discussed. The meeting includes two or more than two people.
Objective of Meeting
Meetings are considered effective if some agenda or goal is achieved during the session. The
main objective of meetings is to share the information. During meeting various matters are put in
front of the members, issues which are sensitive and complex are discussed with the aim of
solving. Purpose of the meeting differs from the type of agenda or aim the organization has. The
need urgency of the meeting depends on the scope (Mustapha, et.al, 2016) of the organization. In
general, meetings are conducted for the following activities: to solve the issue arising, to make
justice, to inform, to solve the problems and conflicts, to discuss the project, to acquire the
feedback and to make decisions and implement the plan. Meeting also develops the
understanding between members. It also helps to initiate and encourage people. The meeting can
be conducted in many ways like face to face conversation, telephonic, verbal interaction, video-
conferencing etc. It is very important to know the objective of the meeting before conducting it.
Types of Meeting
The main component of any meeting includes content, Interaction, Structure. Content of the
meeting is the experience, information, knowledge, perspective and idea brought by each
member. Interaction helps in sharing the opinion (Nickerson and Planken, 2015) with one
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another and taking part in the meeting. The structure is the organization in which information
and members are organized. Meetings are of various types:
 Formal meeting
 Informal meeting
 Informing meeting
 Decision-making meeting
 Problem-Solving meeting
 Consulting meeting
Who needs to attend the meeting
The meetings are attended by the people who want to gain some information and require
knowledge. The people who generally attend meetings are a member of the team, senior staff
responsible for conducting the meeting, the person sharing the agenda, people responsible for
making a decision, stakeholders who are assigned in the project, for example, chairperson, staff
member.
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AC 1.2
Explain why it is important to have a minimum number of attendees for a meeting
The minimum number of members that must attend a meeting is known as a quorum. The
meeting cannot be proceeded or conducted if the required number of members is not present.
Quorum’s i.e. minimum numbers of member are set by the individual organization and
institution according to their need and requirements. It is generally decided by considering the
average number of people. Deciding quorum is (Kelly, 2018) considered as the necessary and
mandatory process for the organization. To decide new chairperson, to conduct the voting, a
quorum is set. If any member of quorum is absent or leaves the meeting in between then that
member is no more included as the member of the quorum. It is very important to always have a
minimum number of attendees at the meeting. It helps to a conduct meeting to fulfil the legal
requirement of the project. It also helps to make the decisions correctly with the approval from
the majority of the people. Conducting quorum helps to prevent the member of a meeting which
pretends to form the majority of the whole organization. The chairperson has the responsibility to
ensure that all the member of quorum is present in the meeting. If any member is not present
then proxy of the member will be counted on the quorum. Meetings cannot be conducted without
the interaction of people or member. And to conduct any meeting it is very important that a
minimum number of members should (Nickerson and Planken, 2015) always be present. The
member present will represent as the evidence that all the actions and deals are conducted in all
the legal form. The main and foremost objective of the quorum is to arrive at the decision having
authority to bring any action into the implementation. Quorum helps to conduct the business and
allow the transaction of deals and offer to happen. Many organizations like Microsoft, Google,
State Assemblies have a quorum to take any important decisions.
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AC 1.3
Explain the way to achieve maximum attendance at meetings
Meetings are necessary to achieve goals and to exchange information. Meetings should always
be conducted keeping in mind the end result. A meeting should be kept short, productive,
informative and on topic. But sometimes meetings can be inefficient if people do not attend it,
therefore, it is very necessary to ensure that the maximum number of people attend the meeting.
The following points should be kept in mind to achieve that.
 Meeting should be kept at a time feasible for everybody, if the time set for meeting disturb or
hamper the work of people then it will get very (Kelly, 2018). difficult to gather people for
the meeting.
 After setting time, it should be kept in mind, one should be punctual about the time that
means starting and ending the meeting on time, not making the meeting go long unnecessary
it will make participant tire and will discourage them.
 Meeting should always have a purpose and objective that should be shared at the time of
invitation because people have no free time to attend meetings that do not have a motto.
 Proper invitations should be sent on time with proper details so that people can manage their
time accordingly and attend the meeting.
 It is very necessary to take follow up after making an invitation and giving the reminder call.
If possible, ask if they have accepted the invitation or not, this will help to get an idea about
how many people are going to attend the meeting and invite more members to maximize the
number.
 Ensure that everyone is informed about the meeting in (Kaplin, et.al, 2019) pretty advance,
unnotified notice can tend to decrease the number of people.
 A place for the meeting should be decided in such a way that it becomes feasible for
everyone to attend the meeting. Location of the meeting should be decided according to the
number of people attending the meeting and who all are attending it.
 It is good to send feedbacks after conducting meeting asking the drawback of meeting and
future suggestions, this will help in increasing the number of members in future meetings.
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 Meeting should be made creative and interactive which helps in engaging all the participant
of the meeting. A boring session makes decrease the chances of attendance in upcoming
events or meetings.
 A guest speaker can help in making the meeting (Bathiya, 2016) interactive which can help
in providing information as well as keeping them interactive.
 Promote the meeting on the social networking platform and ask people to bring their
colleague or members to the meeting, Social media is a platform which helps to expand and
grow the awareness.
 Don’t keep a high amount of money to attend the meeting, this will decrease the chances of
people attending the meeting.
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AC 1.4
Explain the access, health, safety and security requirements relating to meetings
After setting time date and place for meeting and inviting people and having the assurance of
people willingly want to attend the meeting, the next step which should be followed is to ensure
good health, security and safety requirements of the meeting. Here are some points discussed
regarding the health, security and safety:
 Decide the venue and location such that it is safe for people to attend the meeting there, it
should be ensured that the infrastructure of (Nelson and Staggers, 2016) the venue is safe.
 Electrical wires and electronic devices are properly installed to avoid trailing.
 Proper pre-advance security measures should be ensured before conducting a meeting so
that in case of fire or other accidents, actions could be taken quickly.
 All the equipment’s for example, laptops and other devices should be checked of their
good working condition to avoid any safety concern.
 Make sure that only authorized and invited people attend the meeting.
 Confidential and important documents should be brought with proper security so that it
does not cause any glitch in the meeting.
 First aid kit should be kept in a meeting to help at the time of emergency.
 Furniture and roofing of the meeting place should be ensured so that it does not cause any
harm to the people.
 Proper hygiene, clean and hazard free facilities should be ensured for the people.
 Check the list of delegates with the people registered for the meeting.
 Facilities like lifts, wheelchairs and chairs should be accessible by all.
 Ensure that place decide for break time are also safe and secure.
 The training program should be provided (Sadgrove, 2016) to people to help in handling
the danger and dealing with accidents.
 Proper inspection of the meeting room or location should be conducted before the
meeting.
 Refreshment provided must be healthy and hygienic to avoid any health problem.
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 If the common vehicle is used, then ensure that it is properly working and fueled to avoid
any accident.
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AC 1.5
Describe how to set up the resources needed for a meeting
A meeting needs various resources for the successful completion of the meeting, the basic
requirement of the meetings and the way to set the resources are described below. Different
resources needed for the meeting are
Writing material: To note down the important information notepads, paper, pen, pencils are
required.
Projectors: These are the materials which are used for displaying the slides or documents.
Dry board: these are the
Laptops: these are required to display the documents (Sadgrove, 2016) with the help of
projectors. Projectors are connected with the laptop.
Printers: Printers are used so that important agreement paper can be printed at the moment. They
are also used to print the documents and papers.
Video equipment – Video equipment like DVD and VHS are required for conducting video or
teleconferencing.
Lighting – Proper lighting of the room should be ensured before conducting the meeting.
Refreshment facilities – Proper refreshment facilities like drinking water, tea and snacks should
be arranged. Refreshment should be hygienic and in good quality.
Safe furniture – Furniture of the meeting rooms like adjustable chairs and desks
Documentation- Documentation part includes the (Biswas, 2017) brief of the meeting, agenda,
important point of the previous meeting, necessary paperwork
Stationery item – Various stationery materials like markers, pencil, paper etc. should be present
so that it will be available easily at the time of need.
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Room – it is the most important resource for conducting a meeting, it is the place which decides
where should the meeting be conducted.
Budget – No work can come into action if the budget is not decided. The budget should be
decided for the refreshment, for the venue, for stationery items, equipment etc.
First-aid Kit – It is good to keep the first aid kit in the (Mustapha, et.al, 2016) meeting room so
that it can help in the emergency.
Speaker – Speaker is the person responsible for speaking of the agenda, informing the team
member.
The setting of resources is not a heavy task, just it needs a little attention and all things will get
arranged. After the resources are installed, all the requirements should be cross-checked to
ensure that all necessary items are available. Health and safety of the equipment should be
ensured. Cables and wires must be safely installed and checked before the meeting. Hazardous
measures and all other safety actions should be set up before the meeting.
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AC 1.6
Explain the responsibilities of the meeting chairperson and meeting secretary?
The meeting chairperson and meeting secretary have their own specific role and responsibilities
which is discussed below:
Responsibilities of chairperson - A chairperson is the person who has the highest authority in
hands or having the highest rank in the meeting. Chairperson is the head or representor of the
organization which requires patience and high leadership qualities. The various responsibilities
of meeting chairperson are
 Chairperson introduces the objective of the meeting to the whole team and ensures that
discussion sticks to the objective.
 Chairperson approves for the minutes (Sadgrove, 2016) of the meeting.
 The final meeting is called off when the chairperson states meeting is officially closed.
 Chairperson is involved in the whole stages of the meeting and the process from discussion
to planning and taking decisions.
 It is the responsibility of the chairperson to ensure that meetings are conducted properly and
functions effectively.
 Chairpersons are responsible for making the policies and agreements regarding the
organization and checks that organization management is running smoothly.
 All the decisions and remarks in the meeting are made on behalf of the chairperson.
 They ensure the progress of the organization and help to ensure that major actions should be
taken to gain success for the organization.
 Chairperson ensures that meetings should be conducted on time and provide support to the
secretary and help in clarifying doubts and misunderstanding.
 At the end of the meeting, chairperson summarizes (Nelson and Staggers, 2016) all the
important points of meeting and come to a conclusion.
 Chairperson is the person who is responsible for arranging the time and date of the next
meeting.
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