Anytime you're organizing a meeting, you're organizing a group of people and their schedules, too. To keep a meeting on task, one of the most important things to do is to go into it with clear expectations. There are plenty of high and low-tech solutions that can help you plan a more effective meeting, but what is the core thread that runs through them all? Clear and effective communication and attention from participants.

Unison.io, at its core, is a powerful group communication software with features that unlock endless possibilities. Follow these steps to guarantee a more effective and efficient plan for your next meeting!

Know your attendees in advance
Communicating when and where your meeting is is the first step to planning, but how do you know who will attend? Sending out an RSVP request for the meeting in advance will enable you to know who will be there and who might be missing out. These details are especially helpful if your meeting requires a certain number of people to be in attendance. For example, if your committee requires a quorum for voting purposes or if you need to limit the number of people because of space constraints. Plus, Unison.io's RSVP feature is built right into the calendar, ensuring that all of the information related to your meeting is in one place, including your video conferencing meeting link.

Build a better agenda
Planning the schedule and giving your attendees an equal opportunity to submit topics in advance will lessen the amount of last-minute items that come up at a meeting. With Unison.io, you can use built-in forms to attach a series of fill-in questions to an email to invite attendees to submit additional topic requests in advance. Once your agenda is finalized, use the Announcement pane to privately email those who have reports or presentations due in advance, making it easy to communicate to only those who need to respond. When all the documents are prepared and submitted, they can be attached and distributed with the finalized agenda to meeting attendees right through an email or text!

Make day-of details painless
Anyone RSVP'd to an event will receive a handy email reminder with quick links to important information like the event start time and location. With Unison.io’s texting feature, you can easily reach your attendees with last-minute reminders or changes. And Unison.io’s group feed is easily searchable, making it the perfect place to store meeting documents, agendas, and minutes for quick, day-of reference.

Take it from the top
Even though your meeting is over, there’s still likely work to do! Use the Announcement pane to to send out a poll right through email or text to find out the best date and time for all members, and avoid the dreaded reply-all chain of emails! Once your meeting is set, add sign ups to assign people to tasks that they committed to completing before the next meeting - Unison.io will automatically remind these people of their commitments!

Unison.io helps organizations do more by improving communication and organization, and can be used to help make your meetings more effective by improving planning and execution. And the best part? It’s completely free for groups up to 50 members. Visit Unison.io and create your account now!