Help arranging meetings with VP's

[Loychik]

Hi
I am new in my position as an admin. assitant. I work for a large university and have had little training in schedulng meetings and the standard way of doing this. Most VP's here have assistants.

My question is I am trying to arrange a meeting with 5 VP's and I have not heard back from the most important one yet for this meeting.  There schedules fill up very fast. It has been two days. I have already sent a follow up email to the assistant and still no response.  How long do you wait to contact a 3rd time.  I don't want to appear pushy, but I need to get this scheduled!

What is the standard protocal you use for something like this?

Thank you so much,
Donna

[Jackie G]

Donna

If you appear to have consensus on one date, send an email to this VP's assistant telling her this and seeing if she can find the same space in the VP's diary.  And in the meantime, ask the others to hold the date if they would pending this 5th one confirming.

[msmarieh]

I would switch to calling now, rather than emailing. Call the assistant and ask about the status.

Welcome to desk demon.

Marie

[gee4]

We all have a different approach to these kind of tasks.

Sometimes as you say Donna, diaries fill up fast, so in the first instance I may have emailed the other assistants and followed it up a short while later with a phone call.

It all depends how much time you have eg. is the meeting this week or is it a couple of weeks away?

I work in a very fast-moving environment so in liaising with other assistants we do our best to make things work especially if time is limited and meetings are urgent.

The other thing to remember is, the meeting must be scheduled around those who are key attendees.

[peaches2160]

I would call. 

[Sunflower]

Hi Donna

Many congratulations on your new job 

I would call - or even better, if you can, go and introduce yourself and see her in person.

[Katie G]

Hi Donna and welcome!

I'd call, as well.  I've even gone as far as to conference call various assistants so we can all look at calendars together.  Gets me out of playing middleman (or middlewoman, if you prefer.)

And I feel your pain -- I'm going through a similar issue. 

[StephanieP]

I also would switch to calling.

I hope you're enjoying your new position.

[peaches2160]

I have conducted conference calls on several occasions to schedule meetings so we can get it calendared and avoid the E-mail trails.