Meetings can often viewed in classical media as where the "work" happens, but this is seldom the case. Formal meetings are primarily useful for exchanging information, ideas, status, and getting everyone on the same page so that individuals and small groups are able to continue to make progress. It is very expensive to have lots of people in a room for longer than necessary or who didn't even need to attend in the first place. Executing a successful and efficient meeting takes skills and planning which all professionals should develop.
Before a meeting happens, the host(s) should know why it is being held, and anyone expected to attend should be informed of what the objectives are. People's time is valuable, so making efficient use of said time is important.
An invite should include the "who" "what" "when" "where" and "why" of the meeting. This is extra important for someone who is new to a team or unfamiliar with a project.
A great deal of information can be included ahead of time should be in most cases. Topics, documents, data, agenda, and briefs that can easily and appropriately be added to an invite or email in advance may allow the team or invited guests to walk into the meeting informed and get straight to the important conversations.
A host(s) shouldn't expect that everyone will have closely read these materials, but many discussions can be streamlined by this strategy.
If someone doesn't need to be at a meeting their time should be returned by excusing them.
For the purposes of senior design, all students should expect to attend their regular meetings, but if a liaison or DAB member or other professional can be excused from an irrelevant meeting for them, the option should be clearly offered.
Meetings should have a tentative set of topics ahead of time.
For some meetings this can be a long list, and for other meetings there may only be a single topic.
Depending on the meeting, it can be valuable to highlight these topics at the outset of the meeting in an agenda, so the attendance know what is coming and in what order.
When possible, order the agenda such that a member of the meeting could leave early if many of the later topics do not pertain to them (particularly if that person's time is extra valuable, common with subject matter experts).
Note taking in meetings is incredibly valuable for keeping track of commitments, issues, watch-items, and other information. Many believe they will remember everything that was said in a meeting, but it is all too common that attendants will follow-up with repeat questions.
It is common and useful in technical meetings, for all members to be taking their own notes to insure that they record and perform their own action items.
Generally, at least one person from the team should be taking high-level notes of what was discussed and any critical conclusions, questions, or concerns.
It is quite rare for no work, needs, or milestones to be identified in a meeting. When a meeting identifies work that needs to be done on the project, these should be quickly turned into "action items."
Action items are clear statements of work or objectives that need to be completed. With rare exceptions action items should contain:
A clear statement of the work that needs to be done and is easily identified as complete or incomplete.
An individual or clear group who owns getting the work done.
A clear time that it should be completed by.
"Team to make progress on the design" is not a good action item in this respect as it is far to ambiguous.
"Ryan to complete the draft schematic and deliver to our advisor for review by Friday" is a far better description that is clear about who will do the work, what the work is (particularly easy to tell when it is done), and when it needs to be done by.
Action items should be published for the meeting attendants or at least the action owners after the meeting so everyone is clear on what needs to be done.