By James Stroman, Kevin Wilson, and Jennifer Wauson

Whether we like it or not, meetings are a regular and time-consuming part of business life. Because meetings require planning, coordination, and documentation, they are a major job responsibility for most administrative assistants.

The assistant's job includes sending invitations to meetings, finding time in the schedules of meeting attendees, and selecting meeting times and locations. A thoughtful administrative assistant is careful to avoid scheduling meetings for early Monday morning or late Friday afternoon.

Some executive meetings are scheduled weekly. Despite their being routine, the administrative assistant must still schedule the meetings, send invitations, and send reminders. This also involves creating meeting agendas that include the names of everyone attending the meeting, the date, the time, and the meeting location, as well as any advanced preparation required of the attendees.

Sometimes a meeting is called at a moment's notice. When this happens, the assistant needs to coordinate the meeting by calling the attendees on the phone, seeing them in person, or using an e-mail scheduling program such as Microsoft Office Outlook® 2003.

Scheduling meetings

Scheduling meetings is one of the most common tasks for administrative assistants. In the past, scheduling a meeting was a time-consuming task that involved printed invitations sent as interoffice memos. Usually the telephone was the preferred method of confirming invitations. Today, with computer technology and groupware software such as Outlook, the task of scheduling a meeting only requires a few mouse clicks.

Despite the advances in technology, scheduling a meeting is not as simple as it looks. There is a lot of judgment involved. Anytime you bring together a group of people, there are many factors to consider. You have to consider pecking order. Some members of the group are more important, so others must change their schedules to accommodate. Decisions about where a meeting is held can be important as well. Is the meeting room large enough and supplied with the right equipment? Can it be reserved for the entire meeting?

Common problems when scheduling a meeting

The following are common problems that occur when scheduling a meeting:

• The meeting is scheduled, and after everyone has been invited, you discover that some important participants can't attend. Another date has to be found. This can lead to a cycle of invitations and revisions.

• You ask the participants about their availability for a meeting, but the available dates and times are so limited that no common date and time can be found.

• A meeting is confirmed but then needs to be changed.

• A meeting location is specified and then later changed in a subsequent meeting notice. Some of the attendees follow the original meeting notice and end up in the wrong room.

• Repeated meeting notices and revisions are sent out, so everyone is confused about the meeting.

• You use an Internet-based meeting scheduling tool, but outside participants don't have the same software.

• A work team uses an Internet system to schedule meetings, but eventually the team members get lazy about updating their schedules and begin to miss meetings.

• A meeting is scheduled and confirmed, but the location is already booked.

• No one sends a meeting reminder, and several attendees forget about the meeting.

• People are invited to a meeting, but the meeting organizer didn't say what it is about, so they show up unprepared.

Meeting agendas

The meeting agenda is like a road map for the meeting. It tells the participants what the plan is for the meeting, providing a sense of direction and purpose. A meeting agenda should include:

• Meeting start time and end time

• Meeting location

• Topic headings and topic details for each heading

• How much time that each topic discussion is expected to last

• Who facilitates the discussion of a particular topic

If you use word-processing software such as Microsoft Office Word 2003, you can use the Agenda Wizard to create an agenda. The Agenda Wizard asks you specific questions about the meeting, and when you are finished, it creates an agenda document. You can send the agenda as an attachment to a meeting invitation or print copies and bring them to the meeting.

A successful meeting

Careful planning and coordination pave the way for a successful meeting. When attendees know when and where they are meeting, and are equipped with a useful agenda, you have done your job well.

About the authors   This article was adapted from Administrative Assistant's and Secretary's Handbook, Second Edition, by James Stroman, Kevin Wilson, and Jennifer Wauson. It is used by permission of the publisher, the American Management Association (AMA).