Message from Faculty: “Please will all students engaging in on-line tutorials or meetings remember to attend wearing clothes.”
Chairing and taking part in conference-calls is quite different to other sorts of formal or informal meeting and is an art in itself. Because visual cues are usually absent, a different set of rules apply. This does not mean you may attend naked, but may mean, for example, interrupting speakers in a way that might be deemed offensive when in a ‘normal’ setting of being around a table. The Chair should not be afraid to mediate ‘robustly’, especially once it becomes clear that attention spans are very very short and that you are competing with e-mails and Facebook posts you cannot see. Just listen to any BBC Radio programme and you’ll quickly get to understand the dark art of strategic interruption.
Whether chairing or participating, the following tips for better conference-calls – and, for that matter, conducting BBC interviews – have proved useful in the past:
• Distribute important documents to participants well in advance, including a draft meeting agenda and overall statement outlining the purpose of the meeting. Do this via a platform like Googledocs.
• Set the time and date of the meeting making sure to make clear what time-zone is being used, and e-mail all attendees the passcode and conference access number in advance.
• Open up the meeting room five minutes early and jot down the name of participants as they come on-line.
• Start your meeting on time by reading out the list of those who have logged on, introduce yourself, and then ask if there is anyone else on-line who has not been mentioned.
• Clarify the purpose of the meeting and quickly run through the agenda to confirm that it suits everyone. Quite often, one or two participants will need to leave early and so will want various items brought forward. Having agreed any revisions, let everyone know how long the meeting is scheduled to take.
• Introduce late-comers at a logical break rather than as and when they enter.
• Participants should identify themselves by name and location each time before speaking.
• If disconnected, simply re-dial the conference access number and enter the passcode. There is no need for re-introduction.
• If any participant thinks a speaker is rambling on or repeating things already said, they should not be afraid to say so. Nobody will be offended.
• Enhance call quality and minimise background noise by muting your microphone when not speaking. Bandwidth limitations usually preclude using video. Put some ‘scotch’ tape over the camera just in case.
• If chairing, summarise action points and deadlines at the end of each agenda item rather than leaving it all to the end. Make sure everyone knows to whom the responsibility for each action has been delegated.
• Leave some time at the end of the meeting for any other business (AOB). However, note that some chairpersons prefer to suggest that AOB merely sets the agenda for the next meeting.
• Provide the web address where participants can see and exchange materials and request additional information.
• Close the meeting by deciding when the next one is to take place, and, if rotating the chair, who is to facilitate preparations and chair. It’s surprising how many times this is forgotten.
• After your meeting, circulate decisions and action items by e-mail to all attendees as well as other appropriate people.