Let’s be honest — each of us was dying of boredom and anger at a long and useless meeting, which could have been replaced by a simple and concise e-mail. As a rule, there are two reasons why the meeting turns into a total failure. In the first case, there is no need and purpose for the meeting. In other words, it is a gathering for the sake of a crowd, which is best canceled and replaced by an e-mail or a template. The second reason is uninformed and unprepared staff before the session. This is where a meeting memo or an Excel Invoice Template can help solve the problem.
Meeting Memo Defined
Before moving on to a template, let’s define this notion. A meeting memo is a short, succinct informational message to team members who should be present at a meeting. The purpose is to inform or remind colleagues of the upcoming event and to remind them of the objectives. The memo can also include a call to action or action items.
Why Sending Memo Before Staff Meetings?
Every productive and effective meeting should have a clear goal and objectives communicated to meeting participants. By knowing what is required of them, team members will be prepared and engaged in solving the problem. The meeting memo provides employees with all the necessary information and expectations for the meeting. This small step helps bring the team together, facilitate their communication during meetings, engage them in the discussion, and define roles and tasks before the event even begins. Productive and short meetings equal a happy and motivated team focused on results. Sending a memo is like planting a seed that can grow into a beautiful flower after a meeting.
Elements of Staff Meeting Memo
A meeting memo has a certain structure and essential elements you can’t omit. They include:
- Header — Come up with a basic and self-explanatory title for your memo (e.g., Regular Friday Staff Meeting Memo)
- To — Define a group of people who receives a meeting memo (e.g., Front-End Developers Team)
- From — Let people know who is throwing the gathering and mention the person’s full name and position.
- Date — Set the date of your meeting.
- Time — Specify the time taking into account different time zones for remote employees.
- Location — Inform participants of the meeting location. If it’s offline, you can put it as simple as Conference Room 2. However, if a huge staff gathering requires a new venue, you should mention the address or pin it on the map and link it. When it comes to a virtual meeting, you should mention the video calling app (Skype, Whoosh, Zoom, Google Meet) and leave a link to a chat room.
- Meeting Subject — Introduce people to the purpose or the pain of your gathering. Try to make it concise. (e.g., Hardware update for the design team)
- Attendees — List all the participants with their full names and positions.
- Main body — In this section of your meeting memo, you should inform your staff about the purpose and reason for the gathering. Define the topics you plan to cover and set your expectations or action items for the participants to prepare.
- Call To Action — Your CTA may vary depending on your goal. If you need to know who’s attending, you may ask people to confirm.
- Contact Info — Introduce a person your team can address in case of any questions and leave their contact information.
- Signature — Don’t forget to sign a meeting memo.
You can add some additional elements like attachments or an agenda. Make sure not to turn your memo into a novel — keep it up to one page.
Staff Meeting Memo Template
Having a ready-to-use template can simplify the lives of people in charge of compiling and sending out these notes. You can find an example memo for meetings online or just use our template and customize it for any meeting type or your company’s needs.
[Insert Meeting Type] Meeting Memorandum
- TO: [Team’s name]
- FROM: [Employee’s full name], [position], [company name]
- DATE: DD/MM/YYYY
- TIME: [__:__] AM/PM [time zone]
- LOCATION: [Address] or [Link]
- MEETING SUBJECT: [insert your subject here]
- ATTENDEES: [Employee’s full name], [position]
Dear colleagues,
Our next staff meeting on [date] at [time] will be devoted to [subject]. We are planning to [briefly describe your goals related to the subject]. To achieve this, we will discuss the following topics:
- [topic one];
- [topic two];
- [topic three].
As we expect active participation, please [define the action items employees need to take].
Please, confirm your attendance to [ full name ]. You can also contact him/her via [e-mail] if you have any questions or offers.
See you on [date],
[name]
As you can see, you can easily customize this template to any type of meeting you can have. Nothing is challenging about writing a concise memo that can boost your meeting engagement and team efficiency. Respect your staff time and don’t irritate them with a total-waste-of-time meeting.
