Checklist for virtual meetings

The following checklist is constructed from the following paper on Project Connections, Best

Practices from Experiences in Facilitating Virtual Meetings (Mittleman, Briggs, Nunamaker).

1. It is harder to follow a meeting process from a distance.
   
   • Be explicit in the planning of the meeting.
   • Poll the participants for their vested interests.
   • Whiteboard/flipchart the agenda and refer back during the course of the meeting.
   • Do not ignore process transitions.
   • Do things in an incremental fashion.
2. People don't get feedback when working over a distance.
   
   • Facilitate feedback.
   • Encourage frequent milestones and checkpoints.
   • Use of alternative methods for feedback.
3. People forget who is at a distributed meeting.
   
   • Use reflective techniques.
   • Rollcalls.
   • Link people in. Distribute photos and short biographies.
4. It is harder to build a team over a distance.
   
   • Create clear, unambiguous goals for the team.
   • Have kickoff meeting face to face.
   • Have mutual breaks.
5. Network connections are unpredictable.
   
   • Assume that there will be a technology learning curve.
   • Have a fallback plan.
   • Have a techie on-call.
   • Establish a mechanism for meeting reboots.
   • Provide a process map to participants.
6. It is tough to sort out multiple communication channels.
   
   • Don't chase new technology.
   • Separate tasks and processes.
   • Use video where it is beneficial.
   • Video is not only about talking heads.
   • Use collaboration tools.
7. There is an art to using audio and video channels in a distributed meeting.
   
   • Encourage dialogue rather adopt a briefing format.
   • Leverage relationships.
   • Be aware of the microphone location.
   • Change the focus to different sites.
8. It is harder to converge over a distance.
   
   • Use ad-hoc teams to negotiate compromise solutions.
   • Creat a team document repositary.
9. Different time virtual meetings are different than same time virtual meetings.
   
   • Make certain there arn't easier methods to complete tasks.
   • Value output.
   • Make instructions explicit.

And don't forget the Donuts!

Another checklist for virtual meetings is here.