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I work in a department with four other assistants. We support different teams within the department. As a result of my suggestion, last year we started having monthly meetings for the admin team and later through consensus agreed to have these meetings on a quarterly basis. These meetings worked really well because it brought us together to communicate with each and to address any issues or concerns. We have had one meeting this year which I hosted for the admin team. We have rotated the responsibility for each assistant to host the meeting i.e. requesting agenda topics, agenda preparation, room reservation, sending electronic invite and facilitating. My concern is that this quarter, we do not have any agenda topics. It was suggested that we cancel the meeting. I am interested in hearing ideas from other admins who have similar team meetings for admin staff when there are no specific agenda topics. My concern is, if we start canceling our quarterly meetings, then these meetings may eventually fall by the way side. Any suggestions/ideas will be appreciated.

Hello Shea

I am not sure where you are located but a hot topic here in the UK is Swine Flu and business continuity planning. 

You and your colleagues may not be responsible for introducing such policies but it is actually a good idea for us all to have some idea how we would carry on if a pandemic left us suddenly short staffed.

Maybe you could each review what is in place in your respective teams - eg do you each have a desk manual/secretarial will that a colleague could pick up and follow the key tasks of your role?

If you do it may be helpful to highlight key areas to each other incase of disruption and if you don't currently have desk manuals maybe you could start it as a project and spend a little time at subsequent meetings developing, reviewing and encouraging each other.

Sure there will be lots of other ideas too

Cathy

You can introduce a training that can be covered in an hour., ie: refresher on communications, building a partership with you boss (es), time management, just to name a few.  "Sharpening the saw" and Steven Covey calls it.

Even if you all think there are no main agenda items, meet anyway even for a half hour and see if any issues have risen in the meantime.  You could even take the time to plan the next meeting.

Excellent suggestions!  Thanks for your responses. 

Depending on how your office is structured, there are a number of things you could do...

 

• I love the training idea and would certainly encourage that.
• Have a guest speaker from one of your departments come in and discuss what that department does so your admins learn more about the company as a whole. Rotate between departments at future meetings.
• Process improvement - discuss various aspects of your jobs, how things are currently done and what could be done better - review tasks for best practices and look for ways to enhance proficiency (how do you do "this" in your department - could cover things like mailings, travel, expenses, etc.) It's an opportunity to learn from each other for the future instead of just sharing updates. In particular, discuss frustrations (not talking about whining here, but identifying issues and opportunities for areas to strengthen) and brainstorm ways to make improvements.
• Have a vendor come in and give a presentation about products or services that your company uses to highlight new features and trends in that industry (i.e. travel, catering, conference call services, etc.)
• Review as a group areas where administrative professionals could suggest improvements to the company. For example at one of the companies where I worked, we developed a formal cross training policy where the admins would cover each other when out on sick, holiday, etc. and we also brainstormed an enhanced phone directory option.

You could always invite someone from another department to come to your meeting and do an inservice or an educational piece.  I will also set up time for a "safety check" in our department,  check equipment, discuss any 'fishy' business that might be taking place, etc.  In today's society, you cannot ignore the little things.