Meeting best practices (including remote staff)

This is a page where we can collect meeting best practices for including remote staff. Please feel free to rename this page, and/or move it to a more logical location. Sue Gardner (talk) 17:41, 14 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Start the meeting on time, so people like Siebrand don't get antsy waiting
 * Stop the meeting on time (think about timezone).
 * Figure out a consistently good time for all members of the team (ie, PT mornings to include Europeans)
 * Or if there is no consistently good time, try rotating times so everyone gets to share the pain of being on super-late or super-early.
 * Have an IRC backchannel open during the meeting to make it easier for remote people to contribute without needing to interrupt.
 * Write an agenda before the meeting and send it to all participants way before the meeting start
 * Stick to the agenda.
 * Start with an agenda and take notes in an Etherpad -- this gives another backchannel (also helps when audio quality is lacking, to catch up) and you've got notes ready to post when you're done
 * Make a point of calling on remote people during the meeting, acknowledging that they're disadvantaged in ability to participate.
 * If you're using video, make the image as near lifesize as possible
 * Have all the meeting rooms consistently equipped with the audio-visual equipment that works best for us (people who will know what works best include Alolita, Tomasz, Arthur)
 * Remember that remote people are in the meeting. Pointing at something, if there's no visual link, and going "what I think about *point* that is..." does not communicate what you're discussing"
 * Try to keep the meeting in good order. If more than one person is speaking at once, most audio channels get fuzzed and the end result is the remote person can't hear a thing.
 * Avoid the room opening to the streets, the fire alarms and worker drillers are not helpful
 * And if you have to pick one that does, for the love of god close the windows.
 * When speaking, the first word should be your name: "Jimbo speaking. bla bla bla..."
 * Do not speak all together, take turns. Make sure to have someone in charge of enforcing it.
 * more

Other best practices for including remote people

 * Remote people like the staff list. It helps them keep connected to the life of the office, and it's easier for them to contribute using channels that are asynchronous.
 * Having said that, remote people do not necessarily want to hear about Thai food in the fridge on 3rd, or this REALLY FUN PARTY everyone is going to. That makes them SFsick. <
 * Remote people like it when San Francisco people hang out on IRC. It helps them feel connected socially and casually.
 * Be deliberately, explicitly nicer in text (e.g. smileys), because people will default to a non-nice reading of your text.
 * Please stop calling us remoties. (Wait, who's been calling us remoties?)
 * Oliver, Sage, sounds like I'm at fault here since I call myself a remotie. Self-deprecating and fewer syllables than "telecommuter" but I can try to quit if you don't like it. :) Sharihareswara (talk) 14:50, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Nope, I'd just never heard it before. I may start using it. If nothing else, it has the virtue of tweaking Oliver.--Sross (talk) 15:05, 19 September 2012 (UTC)
 * If you visit another city for business or leisure, check whether there's another WMFer there and try to get coffee with them.
 * If it's urgent, call your colleague on the phone. (And other items from this list.)
 * more

Some random stuff by Antoine
The way Antoine has been doing his meeting at a previous company:


 * write the agenda, send it to participant
 * if it is not in the agenda, it is not in the meeting. Period.
 * last item in the agenda is dedicated to planning the next date/time
 * make sure everyone will show up on time. Remember them about the meeting by using phone / IM / face to face.
 * each item on the agenda is allocated a period of time. Stick to it.
 * more than a few minutes for an item and it probably should be another meeting all together
 * NO LAPTOP! Nothing like someone reading is mail and asking "what is going on?"
 * NO PHONE (unless you are on-call).
 * no discussion 1/1 about some specific topic. Other participants probably do not care.
 * avoid getting too much in details, they can be discussed 1/1 after meeting or be another meeting.
 * Meeting creator in charge of policing participants:
 * make sure people speak one after the other
 * agenda is respected
 * each item is allocated its amount of time
 * meeting end on time...
 * the shorter the meeting (less than 1 hour) the best it is. People start losing attention after 40 minutes or so.
 * having remotes? Get local people to connect to the conf call using their desk phones.

Finally take a log of what has been decided for each item and who is in charge (kind of an action list). Send that log to participants and let them review it. After it has been reviewed, diffuse to other non-participants.

Silenus replies
The best thing for a meeting is never to have been born; second best, to die early.