Internal Communications Resources: Meeting Norms and Guidelines

• Identify the purpose of the meeting
  • This can help clarify whether a meeting is necessary, or if the information can be communicated in a different format (email, Slack, collaborative document)
  • Decide on the intended outcome for the meeting/team/working group
• ​​​​​Develop your agenda
  • Decide how much time you'd like to devote to each agenda item
  • Leave room in the agenda to review previous meeting notes and allow for questions
  • Consider this template for your agenda and meeting notes
  • Include the agenda in your meeting invites
  • MIT Libraries subscribe to "MIT Time," which gives meeting attendees a five-minute grace period for joining a meeting.
• Set your participants
  • Looking at your purpose and itinerary, who needs to be present for the meeting to be successful?
  • If somebody does not need to be present, but needs to be aware of the meeting, consider inviting them as an optional attendee
    • Make sure to reach out to optional invitees and let them know what you will be discussing
• Provide any pre-reading or notes with the meeting invite so the participants can prepare ahead of time, if needed
• Consider the below chart for recommendations for ideal meeting length
  • When scheduling meetings with in-person participants, consider travel time on campus. Make note in your invites about in-person locations so people are aware.

• Identify a note-taker and time-keeper to record meeting minutes and watch the clock
  • Call out any decisions and action items and with deadline and who is responsible
  • Include any Q&A in the notes and any relevant chatter from the chat
• Identify the intended outcome for the meeting/team/working group
• Discuss how decisions will be made
• Set aside time for introductions if there are new team members or this is the first meeting
• Spell out acronyms, either out loud or in the chat
• Keep an eye on the chat, or as somebody to watch the chat, for any communications and questions
  • Zoom has a "raise your hand" feature that can make communication in larger meetings easier, and it can help prevent people from speaking over each other
  • Some people may feel more comfortable typing out their responses instead of speaking them out loud. Be mindful of monitoring the chat for these conversations.

• Meeting minutes should be shared post-meeting
• Meeting minutes should include any important updates and changes to policies, procedures, or priorities
• Minutes should clearly note action items 
  • Include due dates for action items if things need to be done prior to the next meeting
• Any updates and changes to policies, procedures, or priorities should be housed in a shared location so team members can refer back as needed
• Email all-lib accordingly for any updates that may be relevant to a wider audience

• Zoom has some built-in accessibility features like closed captions and audio transcription
• Provide your agenda, slide, and additional materials ahead of time
• Schedule breaks for meetings longer than 1 hour

There is a Learning Bundle on Atlas called "Making Meetings Work" and one called "Best Practices for Remote Meetings"

LinkedIn Learning also has several relevant course options: 

• Leading Virtual Meetings (30 min)

• Leading Productive Meetings (1 hr)

• Best practices for virtual meetings (4 min)

• Facilitate your virtual meeting (2 min)

• Common virtual meeting mistakes (3 min)

• Using body language in virtual meetings (3 min)

• When you run meetings (5 min)

• Virtual and hybrid meeting essentials (22 min)

Before the meeting

During the meeting

After the meeting

Accessibility in meetings

Development resources