Meeting Request Letter
Before writing a meeting request letter be sure to outline the purpose and goals of the meeting before sending out the business letter. Doing so will ensure that your meeting goals and points will appear well planned and rehearsed. You will be able to ensure the most important parts of the meeting are addressed and that everything is covered within the given time restrictions of the meeting. Scheduling of the meeting is crucial.
After you have done your outlining and planning of the meeting, you should begin to write the meeting request letter. Your meeting request letter should begin with a short introduction that states the nature of your request and should give a time frame for conducting the meeting. If the point that need to be addressed are not an emergency, suggest a meeting date that is at least a week out and allow a date window of one business week. An example is to say: I am requesting a meeting be held that addresses current office operations that are being neglected. I feel that we can schedule this meeting two weeks from now someday between Tuesday and Thursday. Suggesting a time frame allows others to coordinate your meeting with their existing schedules.
The body of your meeting request letter should contain a bulleted list of the issues you want to address with a time allotment to each issue. Issue A may get 5 minutes, Issue B may require 30 minutes. Always remember that there will be questions throughout the meeting and your audience will want to provide feedback. This means you should always overestimate the allotted time frames by 5 to 10 minutes. Be sure to allow an additional 5 to 10 minutes at the meeting’s end for an open forum discussion about the meeting. This will allow everyone in attendance to give their input or ask for clarification on misunderstood issues.