Requirements of a Valid Meeting in Business
A meeting may be generally defined as a gathering or assembly of a number of people for the purpose of transacting any lawful business in which such person has a common interest. The meeting is a gathering of individuals to take some decisions. If the business transacted at a meeting is to be valid and legally binding, the meeting itself must be validly held.
The following requirements should be considered to have a meeting legal or valid:
(1) It is properly convened by proper authority. There should be a legal convener who will call a meeting. The company’s secretary is the proper authority to call a formal meeting.
(2) Proper notice must be served. The place of meeting, time, and date must be stated on the notice. The notice of a meeting must be issued to all members highlighting the following things:
- Date of meeting
- Venue of meeting
- Starting time of a meeting.
(3) The notice of a meeting should be sent in time through appropriate media. Whereas, a notice of a company meeting should be sent to every member 21 days before the’ meeting is held.
(4) Every member of the meeting should be properly informed of the agenda. Items or topics of discussion i, e, Agenda should be sent to every member before a meeting is held.
(5) Proper quorum must be present in the meeting. Only authorized people will be participating in a meeting.
(6) A meeting must have a chairman. The proper chairman must preside over the meeting. Whereas the company Act 1994 requires that the chairman should be any member elected by the participating members.
(7) A meeting must fulfill quorum, i,e, the minimum people as required by the meeting should be present. The meeting should not be started until the requisite members of member s are resent.
(8) Business must be validly transacted at the meeting. The Proceedings of the meeting i.e., minute should be kept properly.
(9) Proper minutes of the meeting must be prepared. A meeting must be confined to the agenda and any resolution passed beyond the agenda will be regarded as invalid.
(10) Only legal members can present in the meeting. If there is an unauthorized person in the meeting, the meeting will lose its validity.
It shall be remembered that the secretary shall take notes on the proceedings, prepare the minutes on the basis of those notes and get the minutes confirmed by the Chairman subsequently. After that virtually a valid meeting is completed.
