How many meetings do you plan?

[susans]

How many meetings do you plan?  

None?
How many normal meetings a week?
How many off site meetings?
How many special events?
Board Meetings?

If you do plan meetings, which type is your favorite?

[Cathy S]

Good morning

There are no set number of meetings to plan in my job.  I do plan a regular internal meeting (bi-monthly)and that is easy because it is a case of issues the dates and issue reminders and if people don't turn up they don't.  There are no refreshments and just a minute to record and circulate afterwards.

I am supposed to organise regular (bi-monthly) external meetings - these have fallen by the wayside because the participants don't want to bother, but before they did they were a nightmare  because we had to get everyone there and their diaries were impossible to coordinate (perhaps because they had no commitment).

I am currently organising a conference for 200 delegates for April next year - I wouldn't want to do these too often because already the managers are dragging their feet!  However, I think on balance these special events are my favourite because there is more opportunity to be creative with the arrangements and they usually generate more comment and feedback which is more rewarding for me as organiser.

Cathy

[raindance]

I can't break it down into "so many meetings a week".  I plan about thirty meetings a year which fall into about five or six groups, and have different levels of involvement in each group.  A few meetings are once a year only, some are three or four times a year, some are once a month.  We have four Board meetings a year, most of which last a whole day but one last two consecutive days.  

Then there are "ad hoc" meetings which are scheduled several times a year for various members of the senior management team and our Board of Directors.

Most of our meetings take place on site as we have a splendid suite of meeting rooms with catering services etc available (saves on costs and we hire them out to generate income).  Some meetings take place elsewhere.  The small "ad hoc" meetings I mentioned above are usually scheduled off-site and take place in a venue where our Chief Executive is a member.  Our Board decamps from headquarters once a year to meet elsewhere.  That entails arranging hotels, travel, food, meeting facilities and so on for about thirty people.  

Special events: I arrange dinners, lunches and tea meetings for different numbers of SMT and Board members at prestigious venues.  There's always a serious purpose behind the special events, so I never lose sight of that in the planning, but I really enjoy them because they are fun and I've had the opportunity to go to really nice places.  It just makes my job that bit more interesting if I can get out and about to meet people.  

[laurafmcdermott]

How many meetings do you plan?

As for finding times and actually doing the invitations/agendas/minutes: I plan hundreds per year.

How many normal meetings a week? 8-10
How many off site meetings?  Three per year
How many special events? Two per year
Board Meetings? None

If you do plan meetings, which type is your favorite?

My favortie so far was a meeting that brought company leadership from three states to our local area.  

Our company's culture is very much "last-minute".  For the meeting above that I enjoyed planning, during the last two weeks I had three people who had planned to come back out, and was asked to bring in five more.  It's always scattered, which is frustrating.  Unfortunately I only have the power to influence the management that I am responsible to....the next level and managers from other states are outside my circle!

[mlm668]

Mine are touch and go - usually something along the lines of the one I was given last week.  I have to coordinate a rewards & recognition luncheon for about 50 people.  It has to be in a place that is away from the eyes of the union folks because it for contractor employees.  So that entails gaining access to a door that you have to travel "executive row" (gated parking area for the big wigs)to get to and arrange with security to have the alarm deactivated.  Because we're a secure facility, the caterers have to be escorted during their trips up and down the elevator to the conference room they want to use.  The last time I spent half a day "babysitting" the caterer.

Personally, I hate event planning.  Around here there are just to many variables to work around to get a simple event set up.  If everyone is internal, no problem - just coordinate schedules.  But quite a few do not keep their calendars up to date or don't send responses when they accept so a lot of time is wasted in follow up.

The only meeting planning I did that wasn't do bad was a series one manager asked me to schedule back in January for the whole year.  I had to work up a spreadsheet based on weeks of the fiscal month and go in and book conference rooms for each week to make sure we would have them.  Then the meeting invite to 10 folks per meetings.  I got a lot of good natured complaints about overloading e-mail accounts but at least it was a structured task and I have so few of those with this job it is really starting to wear on me.

Michelle

[spitfire78]

None - yeah!!!

[lucie33]

Being quite a sociable type,  I like the kind of meetings where my boss and a client / contact have agreed they should get together, and then hand over to me and whoever handles their diary to coordinate.  
I get to talk to all sorts of different people, and because they've requested the meeting, everyone's usually pretty good about finding space in the diary.  (Although often, it's only when I've finished setting something up and sent confirmation e-mails that someone suddenly 'remembers' that they've forgotten to put something in the diary, and actually they're elsewhere that day!!!)

[peaches2160]

On average, I plan at least 20 - 40 meetings in some weeks for my VP when he is in town.  They range from teleconferences, video conferences and face to face, quarterly 1 on 1 meetings and 1 on 1 meetings with staff.  I have two weekly meetings every Monday and Friday.  1 weekly staff meeting, 1 weekly teleconf. webex for 150, 1 monthly meeting for 15, in addition to one- off face to face, etc.  and various group meetings.  Having been a meeting and events planner prior to assuming this role, I love it.  some of the meetings require catering, but most do not.  Our building is not really set up for catering ease, so these can be a challenge at times.  i depend on good vendors that arrive on time, bring what you need, and set up and tear down when needed.
Whenever an event comes around, department function, awards dinner, department meeting or retirement dinner, my boss just delegates it to me and gives me pretty much free reign in the planning process.  He knows when he shows up I'll point him in the right direction and have a planner with notes waiting for him to get up and do what he does best, present.