Meetings are often referred to as places where minutes are made but hours are lost. We all know that considerable amount of time we spend in our work place gets consumed by meetings. Meetings have become an indispensable tool for increasing productivity; resolving conflict, interviewing candidates, analyzing tactics... the list goes on. While meetings are important they are also considered time wasters if they are not organized properly.

For instance a typical organization conducts a minimum of five meetings a week, where four or more people participate for around an hour to arrive at conclusions. if you calculate this turns out to be 20 or more person hours spent in a week for the company.
This means cost and it is imperative that this money is wisely spent. We shall see the typical problems an organizer of a meeting faces and some useful tips which would help him to conduct a more effective meeting.

	Do not call for a meeting if the problem can be resolved by having an e-mail Interaction or with telephone conversation. This sure saves time and money.
	Set an agenda which is clear about what needs to be achieved and circulate at least a day in advance to all the attendees. You can prefix a set of ground rules which needs to be followed during the meeting to this Agenda.
	Start the meeting at an odd time. If you want to have a meeting to begin at 9:00 AM, it is often better to have the start of the meeting at 8:59 AM. This helps the attendees to understand your intention and be punctual for the meeting.
	Try your best to get the meeting done with in 1-hour time. Some companies have a policy where all participants are required to stand during the entire meeting so that it becomes impossible to prolog a meeting.
	Try to come up with a pre meeting action point for the attendees and intimate it to them. This helps the attendees to prepare well for the meeting.
	Designate prior to the meeting, a person to take down the minutes (summary) of the meeting. You may also designate one person to be the timekeeper for the meeting.
	Give a reminder to all the attendees 5 minutes before the meeting. However irrespective of the attendance, start the meeting on time. Never wait for a quorum.
	End the meetings on time. Take 5 minutes before the end of the meeting to come up with post meeting action points and identify the owners who would take the responsibility for completing the action points.
	Ensure that the minutes of the meeting are circulated with in the same day the meeting was conducted.