We talk about policies that have been updated or new policies that are being implemented, announcement of new management staff hired in the other divisions within our department. We have a clerical reference manual so if anything is added or deleted from it, it's announced in the meeting. We may also discuss forms we use within the department and how we want them filled out and submitted. Just any information that would be important to you as a clerical team should be discussed in the meeting. Also information that needs to be given to everyone within our work group is announced and then we're responsible for passing that information on. Hope this helps.

We had monthly meetings where we discussed things that was happening in their individual department. We discussed putting together a user's manual that would include topics that was common among each of us and then adding one or more things that we all did differently in our department. We also invited an individual from a department in our company to come in for about 1/2 hour to talk about what their department was all about. This worked out really well because we learned what goes on our company (that has quite a few departments. For Christmas instead of having a meeting we had an ornament exchange where each department brought something to snack on. Every meeting the minutes were typed up and copied to our managers.

Our monthly meetings focus on helping us learn the business. If you know what your company initiatives are, you are in a better position to be helpful to management and customers. From our CEO to our VPs, we have a speaker each month talk about their business units or an upcoming special project. Each assistant then gives highlights about their specific department to keep us all current. We've had some very interesting meetings and powerful speakers!

We meet monthly and cover any of the following topics:

1. Catering - almost every month a vendor wants to bring out a fee lunch to introduce us to their services. It gives us a chance to learn about catering we may not have tried in the past and to build relationships with the catering managers.
2. Corporate Real Estate - we invite the head of corporate real estate every month and she discusses changes on our campus (furniture, food services, printing, etc)
3. Information Technology - our IT executive support person attends to give updates on technology issues (video conferencing, etc) and we have a chance to give feedback on issues we are facing.
4. Development: We try to incorporate some form of development every month. We've shown admin online webinars, brought in our local rep from IAAP, discussed training opportunities, etc.
5. Business Speakers: We've brought in speakers from across the organization to cover topics specific to their department (HR - performance management, Finance, etc.)
6. Volunteer ideas: we recently decided to do a group volunteer event (recording audio tapes of children's books for St. Jude's).
7. New technology or processes: We discuss any changes to AP processes, travel & expense, meeting room reservations, etc that our company has recently rolled out.

Our campus has about 30 onsite admins. So, we have an admin council of 5 volunteers who meet to plan the monthly agenda. One person is the chairperson who takes the lead to make sure the meetings take place monthly. We rotate the members of this group annually. It's worked out great for us.

In addition to most of the above, we also spend a little time going around to each admin (there's only 4 of us so it doesn't take too long) and have each person give a short overview of the things they are working on. This has been great because sometimes it triggers conversation because others have worked on something similar and can provide input. We also review the upcoming month's team calendar to review time out schedules for administrative coordination

Ugh..sorry for the typos, just found my glasses :)