Although meetings are integral to a company, there are many executives and employees who complain about their length being sometimes excessive. In January, a study conducted by Doodle[^1]  revealed that Swiss employees spent an average of 5 hours per week in meetings. So how can you improve the efficiency of meetings? 

An endless meeting is often the result of poor preparation. To save time during a meeting, there are a few steps that should not be neglected. The moderator, as well as the attendees, must contribute to the elaboration of the meeting in order to plan its frame and progress. The meeting agenda, which represents the discussion thread, needs to be established according to the goals of the meeting in order to stay focused. This will help employees progress efficiently without wasting time. 

## Before the meeting – a collective preparation 

### Ask yourself the right questions and set clear goals

> _According to the survey on meetings presented by Doodle, 72% of the interviewed employees think that a good meeting goes through clearly set goals!_

Before scheduling a meeting, key questions need to be addressed: 

**What is the purpose of the meeting?** The outcome of the meeting will serve as a guideline. This preliminary question will allow you to highlight the interest of the meeting for the attendees. 

**What are the main topics to address?** The following step is to define the topics to be addressed during the meeting to achieve the desired goal. These topics will be the items of the meeting agenda.

**Who are the people involved?** A meeting with a large number of presenters is likely to drag on. It is therefore important to gather only those who are directly involved in the topics, decisions and tasks to be performed. 

**What is the estimated time for the meeting?**  According to the number of topics to be addressed, try to estimate and set the duration of the meeting and stick to it on the day of the meeting.

### Establish an organized and clear meeting agenda

> _According to the survey on meetings presented by Doodle, 67% of the interviewed employees think that a good meeting goes through a clearly established meeting agenda._

**List the different items in the meeting agenda >**  A meeting agenda consists of a list of items that resume the topics to be covered during the meeting. The establishment of a precise meeting agenda will ensure efficiency and rapidity during the meeting and will thus avoid unnecessary digressions and off-topic debates. Depending on the topics to be addressed, you can build the frame of the meeting by choosing, for example, a list of points hierarchized in different levels (ex: 1., 1.1, 1.2, 1.3,). If this organization does not seem relevant to you, you can try to group the items to address according to criteria that makes sense regarding the type of meeting: _departments or services concerned, addressed topics, topics ordered according to the interventions of different presenters, steps of the project to realize,_ etc.

**Define the role of the presenters >**  Depending on the established items, define who will speak during the meeting. In order to avoid taking attendees by surprise, schedule each person’s interventions ahead of time according to the meeting agenda. This will encourage them to prepare the meeting and will improve the efficiency and length of the discussions.

**Make the meeting agenda accessible to allow attendees to consult it >** Once the meeting agenda has been established, make sure to share it with all the attendees a few days before the meeting. A good preparation of the different interventions will contribute positively to the smooth running of the meeting. Furthermore, a previously established meeting agenda is likely to ensure a well-organized and productive meeting. The attendees will feel concerned and will not have the impression that the upcoming meeting will be wasting their valuable time.

## During the meeting – the roles of the meeting moderator and the drafter

### Progress according to the set order 

On the day of the meeting, keep the goal of the meeting in mind. The moderator of the meeting is responsible for its smooth running and must avoid any misplacements by following rigorously the pre-established meeting agenda. This will avoid the attendees to feel lost and they will be able to follow the discussions by referring to the common frame previously diffused. 

### Address the covered topics in a systematic way

The moderator of the meeting must try to facilitate the task of the meeting minutes drafter by being clear and rigorous in the way he conducts the meeting. By discussing each item of the meeting agenda in a systematic way, you will ensure a productive meeting and meeting minutes drafting while avoiding wasting time. But how can you discuss the various items of the meeting agenda in a systematic way? 

Here is a solution that considers the discussion of each item of the meeting agenda following three steps that will come out as three separate blocks of information in the meeting minutes: 

**Step 1 – the minutes of the discussions:** Every topic covered in a meeting generally leads to a discussion that will need to be transcribed in the meeting minutes > _this constitutes the first block of information of the discussed item._

**Step 2 – the result of the discussions:** The decisions and high points of the preliminary discussions should be highlighted > _this constitutes the second block of information of the discussed item._ Many employees often complain about leaving a meeting without really knowing which major decisions were made. Highlighting them will avoid that kind of uncomfortable feeling.

**Step 3 – tasks arising from the decisions:** The attendees will have to perform various tasks to reach the set goals > _this constitutes the last block of information of the discussed item._ Thanks to a clear division of tasks to perform, the attendees will be operational as soon as the meeting ends. This will avoid people forgetting what they are supposed to do from a meeting to the next. 

This method will encourage you to proceed in an efficient manner and will facilitate the drafting of the meeting minutes. Furthermore, when the attendees will have to review the meeting minutes, they will easily obtain the necessary information. Needless to say, certain items will not require such a structure and can therefore be covered far more quickly – for example by using only one of the three proposed blocks of information. 

In summary, the success of a company meeting is largely dependent on its preparation. By focusing on clearly set goals and on a clear meeting agenda, you will necessarily limit the length of your meetings and thus keep the attendees active and concerned. Establishing a meeting agenda can sometimes seem tedious. The trick is to create a meeting agenda template according to the different meetings that you conduct. This way, from one meeting to the next, you will only have to make a few changes to the template of the previous meeting agenda for the upcoming meeting, without having to create a new one each time. 

Do you want to facilitate the preparation and conduct of your meetings?

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}

[^1]: To carry out the study in question, more than 6’500 professionals from the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and the United States were interviewed. Doodle also looked at the analysis of 19 million meetings to write this report: [Read the Doodle report](https://fr.blog.doodle.com/le-point-sur-les-reunions-en-2019/)

Do your company meetings tend to drag on? In this article you will find a few tips to limit their duration! 

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How to limit the duration of a meeting?

## Table of contents

The table of contents facilitates the browsing through the meeting minutes. Furthermore, a single click will bring you to the item to be treated. From the table of contents, you can also:

* Decrease the indentation of an item
* Increase the indentation of an item
* Delete an item
* Drag and drop the items and/or sub-items to organize them

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive1_c190e8d7b5.png)

## Item by item

For this new version, the drafting has been redesigned: from now on, only the item to be treated will appear on the screen. Once you are done with an item, you just need to click the button with the title of the next item to be treated to progress in the drafting. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive2_2_d8f1773246.png)

## Redesigned Toolbar 

Each item and sub-item has its own Toolbar. From the **\+ button** you can:

* Attach a file
* Add a note
* Add a decision
* Create a task
* Add a sub-item to the meeting agenda
* Import tasks from the workspace

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive3_3_e41bc9c72a.png)

## The “move” button 

It is now possible to move a note, a decision, a task or a file to another item in the meeting agenda. Click the button with the **three vertical points** (1) and **Move the note** (2). A window will open with all the possible destinations. Click the item to which you wish to move your note (3). The same procedure applies to move a decision, a task or a file.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive4_3_7828884129.png)

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive5_1_68b88ca912.png)

## The pending tasks box 

Pending tasks from the workspace are now available in a box that you can access with a button. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive6_8c12348415.png)

From the pending tasks box, it is possible to import tasks into a specific item: click the tasks to import (1) and, with the drop-down list, select the item in which you want to import the tasks (2). Then, click **Import** (3).

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive7_6e99b65c52.png)

_Info : if you would like your pending tasks to figure as an item in your meeting agenda, like in the previous version, you can simply create an item entitled “Pending tasks” and import all the pending tasks from the workspace._ 

## The 5 steps of the meeting

At all times, you can see which step of the meeting you are in. The user with all access rights can click on each step to change the status of the meeting.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive8_3f51cf7d39.png)

_Info : other buttons at the bottom of the page also allow you to switch from step to step._ 

## Display of access rights of each attendee

You can now click on the attendees of a meeting to see the distribution of access rights. Click on the attendees (1), a window will open with a list of the meeting attendees and their access rights for the current meeting (2). 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive14_c86280b5bd.png)

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_01_diapositive15_07a2d15e76.png)

This can be useful if you need to modify meeting minutes but you do not have the appropriate access rights. You can then spot the attendees who have full access rights on that meeting, who will be able to change your access rights. Attendees with full access rights are represented by a logo with a crown on a blue background. 

\-

A collection of articles explains all the ins and outs of the new Meetings module.

::button-primary[Access the Help Center]{link="https://help.wedo.swiss/en/collections/3202989-meetings"}

The new version of WEDO revises the meeting module to simplify the drafting of the meeting minutes. With this article, discover the improvements this update offers!

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Meeting module : improvements that will facilitate the drafting of your meeting minutes

## Rights management

When you add a meeting, a new column named _Access_ will appear in the list of attendees:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2018_10_diapositive3_1_e1540988841560_7892e6806d.png)

For each attendee, you can choose among 5 options:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_03_diapositive2_1_7db5b841f2.png)

## 5 steps of a meeting

The five steps that structure the creation of a meeting have been improved and are as follows: 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_03_diapositive3_1_24da19b2f6.png)

Please note that changing the status of a meeting (i.e. moving from a step to another) has an impact on who can edit what. For example: an attendee who has the right to modify and add agenda items will be able to do so until the meeting agenda is validated. Only an attendee with full access rights, represented by the logo with a crown on a blue background, can modify the status of the meeting. 

## Rights according to the step

Below is a table summarizing the accesses that allow to modify the elements according to the step in which the meeting is

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2019_03_diapositive4_1_37b3ec51c1.png)

## 5 steps of a meeting

In previous versions, when the meeting was ended the information and decisions could still be edited but not the tasks. This feature has been improved in the current version. All information can still be edited in step 4/5: _meeting minutes in review_ until the moment the meeting minutes will be locked in step 5/5.

## Save changes made to tasks 

The tasks can be updated in the meeting minutes as long as they are not locked, i.e. until step 4/5\. We recommend you to systematically lock the meeting minutes once they have been reviewed and approved. 

## Periodic report

We have added to this version a periodic report which will be sent to you by email. By default, you will receive a weekly report every Monday morning.

To modify this parameter and manage the frequency of the periodic report, go to your _User profile > Settings > Notifications > Periodic report._

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2018_10_diapositive4_1_e1540988863763_d82e3149cb.png)

## For you to discover in this new version

* New tile design for the workspaces, checklist templates, checklists and meetings.
* The tile menu has moved from the action bar directly on the tile itself to improve the user experience.
* Improvement of certain texts to clarify the interface (for instance, for the importation of a previous meeting agenda).
* Synchronization options with the calendar have been improved.

The new version of WEDO integrates various new features such as rights management during meetings.

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Rights management during meetings

## WEDO SARL, THE SWISS MADE COLLABORATIVE TOOL

WEDO Sàrl is a project of David Dutch and Antoine Sudan, two engineers and childhood friends from Fribourg. WEDO is a collaborative tool created in 2015 and supported by Fri Up. It is used to manage tasks, meetings and team projects. The vision of the two engineers was to simplify communication within a company and to revolutionize collaboration among professionals!

## THE BIRTH OF A 100% SWISS START-UP

As an employee of a company, everyone is confronted with different communication channels: minutes, procedures, documents, emails, charts, phone calls or checklists. Keeping a clear vision on the tasks to perform and their deadlines is not always easy. 

In 2015, David Dutch and Antoine Sudan decided to meet several managers of different companies to discover their ways of managing tasks, meetings and projects. It is thanks to the precious testimonies of more than 300 professionals that the two engineers were able to develop their platform. 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2017_07_stemutz_photo_fri_up_we_do_web_imh_8113_1024x683_b61624ecbc.jpg)

Unlike different tools available online, WEDO is adapted to the needs of Swiss companies. 

> Collaborate with ease 

All data are hosted in Switzerland. The application is highly secure and user-friendly, to ensure an easy networking between employees. 

## TOOLS AT THE SERVICE OF COMPANIES

The return on investment of the use of WEDO is rapid. For example, the drafting of meeting minutes via WEDO will save you up to one hour per meeting, in comparison with standard ways of drafting meeting minutes. Furthermore, the traceability proposed by the application allows you to follow up with the decisions made during the execution of a task on the field. 

Our current customers come from different fields: administrations, municipalities, nursing homes, and banks. Dedicated features allow them to follow existing processes, such as the writing of meeting minutes or the creation of checklists for the monitoring of administrative procedures. Collaborative tools are undoubtedly the future of communication systems for businesses. It is thanks to the suggestions by our customers that WEDO adapts to the needs of companies. The goal is to see WEDO become the collaborative reference tool in Switzerland. 

Photo : © Stéphane Schmutz / STEMUTZ.COM / Source : 
[Original article in ECHO](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/article_wedo_echo_2017_06_26_65e15d8fde.pdf)

An article about WEDO published in Echo, the magazine by CCIF. (June 2017 / N° 3). 

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ECHO (CCIF)

## "A simple, intuitive and user-friendly tool."

Launched by David Dutch and Antoine Sudan, WEDO is a 100% Swiss collaborative tool for companies of all sizes. Available in French, German and English, the platform allows employees to network in the management of their tasks, meetings and projects. Followed by Fri Up for almost a year, the start-up has the ambition to become a national reference.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_10_stemutz_photo_fri_up_we_do_web_imh_8113_caa4d3eb64.jpg)
![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_10_stemutz_photo_fri_up_we_do_web_imh_8139_4925e1d403.jpg)

## How did you meet and when did the idea of a joint project arise?

Antoine: "We met on the train in 2003 when we were on our way to the Technical Professional Maturity Course (EPSIC). A good alchemy quickly set in, as did the idea of creating our own company to combine our skills. After studying engineering, we each worked on our own, maintaining special bonds of friendship. It was an important step to gain experience and mature our project."

David: "We launched WEDO when we realized the need to develop a collaborative tool to centralize a company's information and network its employees in the management of their tasks, sessions and projects."

## Many tools exist on the market in project management. How does your product stand out?

Antoine: "First of all, we conducted interviews with some 300 company directors with between 5 and 4,500 employees, with the aim of understanding their organisations and their needs in order to develop our tool. On this basis, we built the WEDO platform. It allows prioritizing, planning, delegating and classifying tasks, while offering a global vision to each employee on all his tasks, the progress of the tasks he has delegated to his colleagues and the person responsible for each activity within a project. Communication between collaborators is then managed in the form of tasks that include a comment system. History is recorded to keep track of activities."

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_10_montage_fr_1024x614_9a5a620c62.png)

## What is the first feedback you have received from users?

David: "All of our customers mention the simplicity, ergonomics and user-friendliness of the tool. We remain very attentive to the users' needs. They provide us with valuable information in the optimization of our solution and the development, if necessary, of new functionalities. In the long term, we want to become a Swiss reference in collaborative tools for companies".

## How did you get to the North Incubator?

Antoine: "Pierre-André Arm, director of COREB, has become a WEDO customer. He then suggested that we contact Fri Up. And last November, we got our sesame for a coaching from the Association and accommodation at the North Incubator in Morat.

David: "Our coach, Markus Ith, helped us with administrative aspects such as insurance and accounting. Today, he mainly follows our dashboards and puts us in touch with prospects."

\--

Interview by Véronique Grady / Source:
[Original article from the info patronale](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/article_wedo_info_patronale_2016_10_a72296cd65.pdf)

An article on WEDO published in October 2016 in the "info patronale" business news

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Info Patronale

This article explains how to use WEDO to follow up a meeting. The main advantages of the dynamic debriefing possible with WEDO are the following:

* Clear list of outstanding issues
* Definition of meeting responsibilities
* Employees receive their tasks directly
* No clean-up work after the meeting
* Better communication of expectations and timelines
* Simplified tracking of tasks from one week to the next

## Create a topic: name, members, color (to be done only once)

In the left menu, click **Topics**. Then, in the action bar, click **\+ Create Topic**. Choose a name and a definition for your topic and then click **Save and continue**.

Define the members who will have access to this topic. Note that you can invite people from outside your company via email address. Click **Continue**.

Finally, choose a colour for your subject. Tip: choose a colour code (meeting in blue, project in red, internal department in green, etc.). Click **Go to topic**.

As an example, I choose to create a _weekly meeting_ topic.

## List the tasks discussed in the meeting

You can now enter all the tasks discussed at the meeting directly in the Weekly Meeting topic. Here's a preview of my example:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive1_ea8637b2ca.png)

## Define who is responsible

In the action bar, click on the **Organize** button then choose **Delegate**. The next window opens to choose a person in charge for each task:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive2_e1541093360187_f6d9c3fc68.png)

## Setting priorities

In the same way, click on the **Organize** button and choose **Prioritize**. The following window opens to choose a priority for each task:

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive3_e1541093385814_1024x445_72d5dd23aa.png)

## Add tasks before the meeting to be ready

Before a meeting, ask each participant to list the points to be discussed in the topic. This will help to prepare a focused agenda and start the meeting on a good footing.

## Keep track of tasks from one meeting to the next

All tasks delegated in the meeting are automatically sent to the right people. Each person in charge will be able to view what has been assigned to him/her in his/her task list. Everyone will also be able to see the progress of tasks at any time of the week by going to the Weekly Meeting topic. Here is the list of pending tasks with responsibilities and priorities.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive4_a5e9c42511.png)

Validated tasks are automatically archived to keep historical records.

## To go a little further

### Add Comments

If a comment is made at the meeting in relation to a task, you can enter it in its detail pane. This comment will remain linked to the task, allowing you to keep track of the discussion history.

### Setting deadlines

Like comments, you can add a due date to a task in its detail pane.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive5_e1541093406283_7111290320.png)

## Export a report in PDF

If you need to export a report (to archive it or send it by email), click in the action bar on the **Export** button.

Choose the information to display and click **Generate File**.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2015_11_diapositive6_e1541093423403_d07ca73458.png)

## Conclusion

Thanks to WEDO, many companies are successfully using dynamic reporting. This approach allows employees to know their responsibilities as they leave the meeting and to control their deadlines more easily. Communication between employees is also strengthened by sharing tasks for a defined group.

Find out how WEDO can help you save more than an hour of work per meeting.

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WEDO for the follow-up of a meeting

With the new version coming online today, WEDO allows you to synchronize your tasks with a deadline with Outlook, Gmail and iCal calendars, as well as all other calendars. 

Two synchronization modes are possible:

* Synchronization of all your tasks
* Synchronization of your tasks by subject

## Synchronization of all your tasks

To synchronize all your tasks with your calendar, go to your _Profile > Settings > Calendar Sync tab._ 

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2016_06_calendar_sync_dee44cf046.png)

If you work with Outlook, click on the “webcals” link. For other calendars, you can copy the link suggested under the Google Calendar title and add it according to the explanation provided by WEDO. 

## Synchronization of tasks by subject

To synchronize tasks by subject, go to the desired subject. Then select Calendar Sync. Follow the same procedure as explained above. 

## Conclusion

Thanks to the calendar synchronization, you will not miss any deadline. Feel free to request a trial period if you wish to be part of the adventure. WEDO offers a free trial period for a team for 30 days. 

WEDO allows you to synchronize your tasks with a deadline with Outlook, Gmail and iCal calendars, as well as all other calendars. 

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## The organization of a Board of Directors

Companies in any field frequently meet with their board of directors to agree on major strategic decisions. This formal meeting must be well organized and conducted efficiently to facilitate the exchange and communication with the board members. It is, therefore, essential to use the necessary digital tools to improve the organization and follow-up of these meetings. These technological solutions must meet security requirements to allow secure communication and access.
Do you need help to ensure effective follow-up and organization of your board meetings? Then, we have the solution to help you!
WEDO is a meeting management tool that lends itself perfectly to preparing and monitoring boards of directors for many reasons. We suggest you discover 7 steps that show you how our collaborative platform supports the organization of Boards of Directors.

 🗓️ 👩‍💼👨‍💼🧑‍💼

## 1. Prepare your CA

### 📂 Organize the documents

If you are involved in preparing for your company's Board of Directors meetings, first organize all the documents that will be presented at the meeting, such as financial reports, sales reports, and marketing updates. Ensuring all documents are well-given, complete, and easy to understand is essential.

###  ✍🏻 Prepare reports

If you are responsible for presenting reports, prepare them well before the meeting. Ensure they are clear, and concise and contain all the relevant information for the meeting.

###  ❔ Identify key issues

Finally, before the meeting, identify the key issues or areas of concern that will be addressed during the session. Then, be prepared to offer ideas, suggestions, or recommendations if necessary.

Once you have prepared these initial points, focus on establishing the topics discussed at the meeting: your agenda.

##  2. Set the agenda

###  📣 Determine what topics to address

Topics discussed at board meetings may vary depending on the organization. They may include:

- financial reports;
- operational updates; and
- Strategic planning;
- Risk management;
- legal compliance;
- Ongoing projects;
- Voting;
- and other matters of importance to the organization.

###  📋 Create your base frame

The items discussed are often the same from one board to the next. Be sure to identify recurring themes to save valuable time preparing for future meetings.

###  🗣️ Choose theme presenters

The speakers may vary depending on the theme. Therefore, it is essential to define who should prepare the agenda items or simply who will be the presenters of the topic. This will reinforce the collaborative aspect of the preparation of the meeting. All members will be involved in the upcoming session.

###  📎 Joignez les fichiers aux bonnes thématiques

Au préalable, l’idée est de préparer les documents et rapports à partager avec votre CA. Prenez le temps en amont d’également les joindre aux différentes thématiques de votre ordre du jour afin que les participants puissent les lire et les annoter avant le jour J. Une réunion bien préparée améliorera son efficacité ! 

##  3. Manage access to the meeting

It is expected that access to a CA meeting needs to be finely managed to choose who can see what and especially when. If your tool allows it, try to control the access to the meeting and the role of your participants according to its stages. This will enable you to prepare your agenda according to these different rights and not worry about access beyond the preparation. Determine who are editors, readers, or those who do not have access.

##  4. Integrate the votes

#### 🗳️ Determine voters

Choose who is allowed to vote. Then determine how you will collect the results. Different options are possible:

- digital votes by each voter ;
- a show of hands during the session;
- and collecting votes, with the secretary transcribing the results at the end of the meeting.

####  ☑️ Allocate shares

Voting is integral to the Board of Directors' process since members are often asked to vote on strategic decisions affecting the company. Therefore, be sure to allocate shares according to the decision-making weight of each voter.

####  🟢 Require quorum

In the event of a vote, and if you have allocated shares, you must verify at the beginning of each board meeting that a quorum is present. A quorum is the minimum number of shares based on those present at the meeting.

####  👤 Allow anonymous voting

Determine for a meeting whether you will allow anonymous voting. This should be determined before the meeting, or at least before voting opens.

####  🚫 Hide voting results until close

Depending on the internal operation, it may be necessary to hide the votes until they are closed. Ensure this is the case for the votes processed during your board of directors.

####  🔨 Write pre-decisions

To save time processing the votes, you can write the pre-decisions resulting from them. This is possible if you can imagine the outcomes of the votes. You can prepare a pre-decision for each possible answer. 

##  5. Write the minutes

###  💻 Writing by the Secretary

For this very formal meeting, the writing of the minutes is usually entrusted to a secretary. Here is how this person will compose their minutes.

#### ✍🏻 Paragraphs

Add well-structured paragraphs to reflect the discussions in the plenary. The idea is to proceed systematically and be as transparent as possible while favoring a simple style and short sentences. Think about your future readers from the start!

#### 🗳️ Votes

During the drafting process, validate the votes prepared beforehand and decide on the final decision.

#### 🔨 Decisions

Highlight essential decisions made during the board meeting. The idea is that from the minutes, each member can see all the strategic decisions that the meeting has decided upon.

#### ✅ Tasks

Make a clear list of tasks that flow from the decisions approved by the board. You can also already assign tasks to the people in charge, determining their priority and due date. By doing this, you will have your members up and running by the end of the meeting. Then, everyone knows what needs to be done and by when.

###  👀 Private note-taking by members

####  ✏️ Add private notes to the minutes

Encourage your members to prepare in advance by taking private notes. The idea is also to have them write their notes and comments during the meeting to ensure they understand what is expected.

####  📝 Annotate attached files

The notes can also be added directly to the files and documents attached to the agenda and meeting minutes. The goal is for members to find their written interventions exactly where they belong.

##  6. Follow up on tasks

Track the progress of tasks from one meeting to the next to ensure that deadlines are met. Then, if your tool allows it, simply import your tasks into the next meeting's agenda to see if they were completed on time.

##  7. Give access to the minutes

At the end of the meeting and after the proofreading stage, control access to the minutes so that each member can review the minutes of the discussions. This will allow members to record everything that was discussed during the meeting. At the end, share the minutes with all members to encourage them to review them as soon as possible after the board meeting.

##  ✅ WEDO's advantages for your CA management

We talked earlier about the importance of choosing an excellent tool to manage and track the progress of your board meetings. WEDO develops the ideal collaborative platform for efficient meeting management. So why will our solution be your best ally for board meetings? Here is a summary:

**📋 You collaboratively prepare your agenda.**
![bod-prepare-agenda.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/bod_prepare_agenda_7476ddda20.png)

**🔐 You manage access to the meeting.**
![bod-access-meeting.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/bod_access_meeting_ac15c4df9d.png)

**🗳️ You integrate the votes into your board.**
![bod-votes.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/bod_votes_c631be7608.png)

**⌨️ You write your report in real-time directly on the platform and allow the participants to take their private notes.**
![ca-writing-minutes.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/ca_writing_minutes_7aa178ad22.png)

**✅ You track tasks from one meeting to the next by importing ongoing and completed tasks.**
![bod-tasks-tracking.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/bod_tasks_tracking_21b36c4285.png)

**👀 You provide access to the minutes directly after the meeting and email them to members from the platform.**
![ca-access-meeting-minutes.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/ca_access_meeting_minutes_b8cb3e8b91.png)

>**Do you want to test WEDO for your next board meeting? Then, our experts will introduce you to the tool and help you prepare your first agenda in 30 minutes.**

::button-primary[Contact our experts]{link="/demo"}

## Some examples of our clients who use WEDO to manage their board of directors
![wedo-customer-board-of-directors.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/wedo_customer_board_of_directors_d91a634e29.png)



Efficiently organize & conduct board meetings w/ WEDO - a secure, digital meeting management tool. Enhance communication & follow-up with our 7-step collaborative platform.

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Organize your Board of Directors with WEDO

Today, there is more public interest in the activities of the financial industry than ever before. Data protection is essential to prevent cyberattacks that can lead to data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage. The banking and financial industries must invest in robust data security measures: employee training, access controls, encryption, and regular assessments are essential to any effective strategy.

Last November, the business management software "Winbiz", was the victim of a virulent cyberattack leading to the temporary shutdown of the software. The software host was storing sensitive information.

The software used by organizations represents a significant risk. Today, cloud platforms are considered as irreplaceable allies of administrative professions: they help us manage human resources, track projects, share files and content, build a customer history, etc. However, each more sensitive than the last, this data must be subject to strict and robust measures to prevent cyber threats and to comply with regulatory requirements.

The advent of telecommuting in recent years reinforces the importance of data protection through the software employees use. Thus, the choice of software must be documented for a secure integration. The criteria to be taken into account during the selection are the following:


### Data hosting

#### Data storage location:

Some companies are surprised to learn that their data is stored in a third country. SaaS provider is free to host their data in any country they choose, regardless of where their headquarters are located. Knowing the hosting country is crucial to ensure that the country in question has strong, strict and transparent legal and political stability.

If the data is stored in a trustworthy country, ensuring that the provider does not practice "temporary data transfer" is also relevant. This phenomenon, more frequently used by global IT providers, implies that the data passes through foreign servers before being stored in Switzerland. It is, therefore, essential to verify that this transfer is legal and complies with GDPR standards.

#### Reliability of the hosting provider:

Certifications standardize the information security of web hosts. Among them, the most recognized certification is ISO/IEC 27001.


### Data protection certification

Companies that outsource their critical systems and processes need to ensure that vendors have strict, independent controls over data management. One such independent certification is SOC 2, issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and used by organizations in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) industry. It assures customers that the organization has designed and implemented adequate controls for security, availability, processing integrity, confidentiality, and privacy. This standard has existed in the United States for many years and has a worldwide equivalent in ISO 270001.

![soc certification.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/Frame_7soc_certification_3fa9275dcb.png)

Switzerland is considered to be behind the US and the rest of Europe concerning SOC 2 reporting. The first significant moves towards certification were made by large companies subject to strict regulations, such as the financial sector. These companies require their service providers to comply with the SOC 2 standard and provide an annual report to meet internal and external requirements. *1

### Authentication and account access

Software of any kind is a critical source of information for an organization. Thus, access to the tool must be secure, so it is recommended to inquire about the availability of the following features:

- Availability of two-factor authentication
- Availability of SAML authentication, if relevant for the customer
- Possibility of managing rights in a personalized way within the tool, in order to only give access to information to the persons concerned.

### Encryption

If a company uses a web application, it must ensure that the app in question uses an HTTPS connection secured by SSL certificates to prevent espionage on the web and email correspondence. In addition to encryption in transit, data encryption at rest prevents a situation like the one experienced by WinBiz and its customers.

### WEDO: the secure solution for collaboration in the financial sector

Sensitive topics and privacy policies are at the heart of employees' daily tasks in the financial industry. From task management to the content of all kinds of meetings, such as team meetings, bilateral talks, customer/insurer meetings, and board meetings, the traceability of discussions is as crucial as their discretion.

The WEDO SaaS software, developed and hosted in Switzerland, is a collaborative platform designed to address security challenges in sensitive sectors. Thanks to its task manager and its customizable meeting module, the platform makes it possible to share files and centralize the information necessary for team collaboration while giving the possibility to configure the access rights of each user.


::button-secondary[Learn more about security]{link="/security"}


## They trusted WEDO to manage their internal collaboration:
![wedo-customer-board-of-directors.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/wedo_customer_board_of_directors_d91a634e29.png)

::button-primary[Schedule a live demo]{link="/demo"}



::button-primary[Try WEDO for free]{link="/signup"}

[^2]: Source : [KPMG](https://kpmg.com/ch/de/blogs/home/posts/2021/01/soc-switzerland.html)

Today, there is more public interest in the activities of the financial industry than ever before. Data protection is essential to prevent cyberattacks that can lead to data breaches, financial losses, and reputational damage.

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Collaborate securely in the financial sector

## What are the organizational challenges in the education sector?

For educational organizations, communication and collaboration are central and essential issues. The management of these structures must be able to actively exchange with all departments to ensure the smooth running of their institution. Management's responsibility is also to foster optimal collaboration between administrative and pedagogical teams.

In terms of collaboration, here are some challenges in the education field:

 🗓️ Managing, monitoring and ensuring the efficiency of various meetings: board of directors, deans' meetings, pedagogical meetings, bilateral meetings, team meetings, etc.

✅ Complete and review tasks of the school management and professionals, as well as of the individual departments, competence centers and partner institutions

 📋 Manage recurring procedures

---

## What hinders organizations from working together efficiently?

Employees often have to reach their objectives with limited and inefficient resources. Email remains the most common used communication channel, and it is to be criticized that few truly collaborative tools are available in everyday education.  
Another finding is that meetings are often poorly prepared, often too frequent, and sometimes interminable… in short, unproductive. However, meetings are crucial for the exchange of information. In the sector, these meetings bring together multiple actors: members of the management, administrative staff, deans, professors or teachers, as well as external stakeholders. The challenge for the management is to efficiently manage these multiple meetings while involving each participant before, during and after the meetings.  
So how do you overcome these organizational and collaborative difficulties while encouraging the digitalization of processes?

## Our solutions to improve collaboration within schools and faculties

WEDO is a collaboration tool that is perfectly suited for the internal organization of schools and faculties. Our solution is already helping many institutions to overcome their organizational challenges and improve internal communication.

![](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/2022_08_wedo_education_1_7b7a9d1792.svg)

Find out how the **WEDO platform** supports schools and faculty in their daily collaboration.

### 1\. Create a collaborative structure tailored to the education sector

Each department or service of the institution can manage its various projects organized in "workspaces". These spaces allow the institution's employees to share meetings, tasks and files. TheWEDO solution brings together all these features on a single platform. 💡Note that collaboration with external specialists is also very simple and possible without additional costs.

### 2\. Manage all meetings in one tool

From workspaces, users can manage all their meetings with WEDO: from the Board of Directors to the Deans, including pedagogical meetings and bilateral discussions. With the "Meeting" module, agendas can be prepared together as a team, minutes can be taken in real time, and assigned tasks can be tracked from one meeting to the next.

### 3\. Prepare agendas collectively

Unproductive meetings are usually the result of poor preparation. The feature that changes the daily life of management and administration is, without a doubt, the collective preparation of meetings. With WEDO, each employee can complete the agenda to prepare their contributions in advance. It is also possible to share and add documents, for all the information that will be consulted in advance or presented during the meeting (PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.).

### 4\. Highlight decisions made during meetings

Meetings are often closed without having documented clearly made decisions or knowing the pending issues and their deadlines. With WEDO, it is very easy to document the decisions and delegate the associated tasks in a reliable way. The meeting minutes are always clearly organized so that the relevant information can be found immediately.

### 5\. Delegate tasks in meetings

It is possible to create tasks and delegate them immediately during the meeting. Thus, the employees involved will be operational as soon as the meeting is over. From one meeting to the next, WEDO keeps track of the tasks completed so that you can always keep an eye on the deadlines set.

### 6\. Transparent and simple communication on running tasks

The task manager integrated into the WEDO platform simplifies collaboration and communication. It is possible to comment on a task, to share information and exchange with the people involved in its completion. A notification system allows you to stay informed in case of changes or important information.

### 7\. Find information quickly

With the powerful search function integrated in WEDO, you can access the required information with just a few clicks. The search runs across the platform using keywords. In this way, users can find meeting minutes, important decisions, tasks and files that contain the keyword they are looking for.

## WEDO is the ideal tool for Schools and Faculties

WEDO is a tool that brings teams together by providing multiple opportunities to communicate and collaborate efficiently. By integrating our solution in many schools and faculties, we understand the educational sector's organizational challenges. Enhance collaboration within your institution with our features:

🗓️ Agenda preparation, real-time minute taking and tracking of delegated meeting tasks.

✅ Collaborative management of tasks through workspaces. 

▶️ Automation of workflows to improve the quality of internal processes.

![WEDO-education-2_EN.png](https://wedo-assets.sos-ch-gva-2.exo.io/WEDO_education_2_EN_d4dae7e484.png)

These customers have chosen WEDO to collaborate efficiently in their schools:

::button-secondary[Learn more about their testimonials]{link="/industries/education"}

Holding and tracking meetings, coordinating between departments, exchanging information and managing administration are daily challenges for the education sector. Learn how WEDO helps schools and academic institutions improve collaboration by optimizing their meeting and task management.

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Meetings

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