Community/Neighborhood Meeting Analysis
Name
Course
University
Community/Neighborhood Meeting Analysis
As part of the practicum course, it was mandatory for me to attend a board meeting to get an insight into how companies conduct their board meetings or solve the different organizational issues. I attended a meeting held by Smith Cooperative, which is located in Nevada. The company manages cooperative purchasing networks for organizations like schools and governmental departments. The meeting was scheduled for 27th April at 08:00 hours at the Smiths Towers, which also serves as the company’s headquarters. More specifically, the meeting took place in one of the company’s boardroom and was attended by all the company directors, some workers, and the community.
Personally, I learned about the meeting on the company’s website. I have worked for Smith Corporative sometime back, and while I was looking for a community meeting to attend to, I considered it as my first option. I looked upon its Facebook page, and luckily, it had indicated this meeting in its upcoming events. I also checked the company’s website to confirm if the information was true. Since I still kept contact with some of the employees that I managed to be friends with, I called one of them and requested him to confirm the meeting for me, which he did. I was really grateful for social media and friends. I marked my calendar to avoid forgetting.
The attendees for this meeting included the departmental head, company directors, and the community. During the meeting, all the officials introduced themselves and their positions in the company. The board members included the head of the governance committee, the finance and audit committee, head of human resources committee, risk and compliance committee, and finally, the investment and infrastructure committee. Departmental heads in the meeting included the human resources manager, company operations manager, who is also in charge of company business, and corporate affairs managers. The cooperate affairs manager stated that he is in charge of the company’s community relations, internal communications, and other governmental affairs. Head of finance and the CEO were also present at the meeting.
One major policy that I learned about Smith Corporative when I was working there is that it had zero tolerance for discrimination. The company has always been sensitive to the gender aspect and sexual orientation issue at the organizational level. It always ensured that there is a gender balance in most of its company operations, activities, and meetings. The company heeds to this policy because, in the meeting, at least 50% of the company’s representatives were women. Most directors and departmental heads at the company are quite young and from mixed races. This shows that the company values cultural diversity in its workforce.
The fact that it was a corporate social responsibility meeting, it meant that community members needed to be involved in the meeting. The community of Nevada was well represented. Among the attendees included community leaders from the sixteen counties, some community members, and representatives from the local authority. Diversity was also evident among the community members and their representatives. However, the representatives were mostly men, while the members were mostly women. The community members were women who were married and had families. Their ages ranged from 25 years to 65 years. In other words, the meeting incorporated the young and the aged. Their races were also varied, given that some members were blacks, whereas some were white and Spanish-Mexicans.
The primary agenda for the organizational meeting was on corporate social responsibility. The company had taken a major break from engaging in corporate social responsibility activities for a while and had felt the need to reinstate the program. Therefore, the meeting was to discuss ways in which it would reinstate the program, starting with a local community, which was also present at the meeting. Other agendas discussed during the meeting include the company’s financial position that would support the program, ways in which the company will begin the project, community’s long-term benefits, and the importance of the local community as the main stakeholders in the project.
While analyzing the prospect of starting the project, the company’s main consideration was its external stakeholders, that is, the community members, representatives, and the members of the local authorities. For a fact, every decision that the company proposed, it ensured that the stakeholders were part of it. In some situations, the company was forced to vote on some decisions just to demonstrate how sensitive the issues were to the stakeholders. Smith Cooperation has always believed in the local community as its main driver. Therefore, the company seemed to lean on what the stakeholders wanted or requested. The company considered most of their ideas and suggestions, and in cases where it seemed not to agree with the community, it always gave better alternatives.
Corporate social responsibility is all about having a functional public relations system. The idea is to reflect or focus on the professional maintenance of a public image that remains favorable, especially to the outside world. Therefore, during the meeting with the stakeholders, the directors and the board members insisted on positive interactions with the community. The community members were basically given opportunities to ask questions and interact with the organizational members. Every representative from every county was given a platform to convey their ideas. All manners of positivity were drawn during the meeting between the community and the organization. In other words, the company ensured that the community felt warm and comfortable during the entire meeting.
All the agendas of the meeting were fully addressed. Both sets of the group managed to agree on how to proceed with the corporate social responsibility activity within the community. The company was financially aware of the responsibility at hand and managed to make adjustments in its budget to accommodate the project. The company was even philanthropic and good enough to ask the community to request some of their needs to be addressed. The leaders ensured that the meeting was on track by recording all the events that were happening and engaging the customers continuously through questions. Specifically, the human resource manager was in charge of taking down the minutes. The master of ceremony was the timekeeper and regulated the speeches. He ensured people did not give long speeches or go out of context. People were given about two minutes to convey their ideas.
The physical setting was perfect or rather conducive for the meeting. The boardroom where the meeting took place was huge and well ventilated. The seats were well cushioned to give the members some comfort during the long meeting. Apart from that, the company ensured that there was a public address system in place so that members could not struggle to talk or listen during the talks. In other words, the company’s idea was to ensure that everyone at the meeting as comfortable. The company also provided ample parking at the Smith Towers for the few members that drove to the meeting. Moreover, there were refreshments such as soda and water, and three meals were also provided, that is, 10 am tea, lunch, and evening tea.
For me, the meeting was a perfect reflection of what we have learned throughout the course. I felt privileged enough to have attended the meeting because I learned a lot about corporate meetings. After the meeting, I learned that stakeholders tend to play an important role in the most organization hence the need to accommodate them in company operations. I also realized that organizations are unlikely to perform well without the community around it, who also doubles up as its main stakeholders. I did not have questions because I was able to grasp everything that was happening at the meeting.