Key Components of Conference Calls for Large Groups: Notice, Agenda, and Minutes

One of the most important things to consider when choosing a reliable large conference call service is knowing that they can effectively troubleshoot or handle the technical elements of your call for you so you can focus on the meat of your meeting instead. To help you get down to the core of what really matters when conducting an effective meeting, we explore these components the notice, the agenda, and the minutes.

While these three components are usually disregarded, they are essential to conducting a successful large conference call. Master these key components and your calls should be smooth, efficient, and well-documented.

Key Components of Large Conference Calls

#1 Notice

Every conference call starts with the notice of the meeting. This is what makes it official, catches the attention of all participants, and provides them the necessary information regarding the meeting. So before going ahead and thinking of the next parts of the call, send out an email as a formal meeting notice.

Your notice of the meeting should contain the name of the organization, the date and time, the purpose or, if already available, the agenda. Most importantly, the notice should contain details and instructions on how to access the conference call. This includes the toll-free number, the passcodes for the participants, the pins for the hosts, the link for any web presentations and visual aids, the registration page and more.

It is also important to note that the notice should be sent out in advance so that attendees have enough time to decide or prepare. Don’t send it on the same day as the meeting. Your participants might fail to show up because of prior engagements or lack of preparation for the necessary materials and documents. It might also lead to technical difficulties that can be easily avoided with ample preparation time.

#2 Meeting Agenda

Next up is the meeting agenda. The agenda will structure your conference call, help you go through the conference call smoothly, and keep it meaningful. Meetings without an agenda will be confusing and disorderly, and can ultimately end up being a waste of time.

With a meeting agenda at hand, everyone is prepared and ready to participate in the conference call. No one is confused about the purpose of the meeting or hesitant to come forward and speak up. Having an agenda is also a great way to ensure that nothing gets forgotten in the meeting. Any issues or concerns, updates, crucial details, and new information are shared and discussed within the call.

To form a good meeting agenda, especially for conference calls involving large groups, you need to make sure that the most simple yet most significant details of the call are included — the date and time, the participants, and the dial-in information. You also have to include the main objective of the meeting. Are you going to talk about the sales for this year, a new project or client, or perhaps the annual team building? And of course, this is where you list the individual items, topics, and points that you will be discussing in the call. Assign moderators or facilitators in each item to make it easier to handle and maintain engagement with a large volume of people and also to avoid unnecessary panic when it comes to the meeting itself.

There are many ways to come up with a good agenda to guide your meeting. It’s imperative that you make sure you are creating an effective agenda for your conference call as this will be a great help in achieving a productive meeting.

#3 Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes are written records of the meeting that documents what happened on the call from start to finish.

It is a great way to keep track of all the decisions made, new tasks assigned to members, opinions or suggestions given by everybody, and new information stated. Meeting minutes are also a great way to keep the non-attendees informed. Supervisors can send it out to people who weren’t able to attend the meeting so they’re up to date and well-informed as if they attended the meeting themselves.

First and foremost, the minutes should contain the date and time of the meeting and the attendees. It should also contain each agenda item and the corresponding actions, decisions, and assignments for everyone involved. It should also specify opinions or suggestions given by the participants, the voting outcomes, and accepted or rejected motions. At the end of the minutes, the next meeting date and time should also be included.

Creating meeting minutes for your conference call will be a great review document, a useful way to measure progress, and an effective accountability tool. Usually, the one who takes the minutes is an active participant in the meeting, a professional note-taker, or your large conference call provider who offers a meeting summary service.

These three components will directly affect your conference calls and if you don’t start paying more attention to these things, then it can affect the productivity of your employees, your work, and your company as a whole.