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Looking for ways to make your conference calls shorter and more productive? Robert A Hall, CAE, Erin Roberts, MSW, and Eric Nelson from the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry have compiled the following article rich with tips for how to be a better conference call participant or chair.

At the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry, our idea of a vacation is a week without an evening conference call! Seriously, because of the Academy’s size and geographical dispersion (7,600+ members in 60 countries), and the intense tempo of operations that goes with an organization of this size, conference calls for the three boards and numerous committees, subcommittees and task forces are the only cost-effective way to get the work done. While we don’t participate in every call, it’s common for us to have two or three evening calls most weeks, and four or five are not unknown.

All those calls have given us some insight into what works. Here are some suggestions.

1. If you are on frequent calls, get a headset. Today’s models are light and effective. You’ll make yourself more productive if your hands are free, and a dropped phone is very annoying to the other participants.

2. Try to take the call in a quiet place and learn how to mute your phone. Believe us, you may think the sounds of children whispering (or screaming), food frying, people eating, dogs barking or toilets flushing (!) can’t be heard by your colleagues. They can, and they are annoying, sometimes embarrassing. Certainly, the hectic travel schedules of our leadership means calls come in from airports, taxis and other public places. If it has to be for you to participate, then it has to be, and people will understand. But your colleagues will appreciate being spared the distractions when you can do so.

3. If at all possible, try not to take a call while driving. A cell phone fading in and out will reduce your effectiveness, and that of the group, plus it will lengthen the call. Also, the squeal of tires, screams and rending metal of a high-speed crash, followed by silence, can be distracting. And the resulting debate about who will replace good old Harry on the committee will delay completing the agenda.

4. Where minutes will become a permanent, legal record, such as for conference calls of boards and executive committees, taping the call is a worthwhile expense. Bob does the minutes for our executive committee, and, while it’s rarely needed, having a back up for his notes provides a safety net. Of course, most association legal experts advise discarding the tape once the minutes are approved.

5. If you can take the call in front of your computer, do so. We find that often a document can be quickly e-mailed to someone who needs to see it, and didn’t get it for whatever reason. It’s also an easy way to make notes. We often send our office e-addresses or staff colleagues three or four “to-do” e-mails in the course of a call taken at home.

6. Someone should at least take notes of even task force and subcommittee calls, so you can reference the decisions, inform interested parties not on the call, and be able to demonstrate if needed that the call didn’t include any prohibited anti-trust issues. Be sure the person taking minutes feels comfortable speaking up to ask for clarification, or to identify speakers.

7. Particularly in large groups where many voices may sound alike, it’s polite to identify yourself when you speak. It’s especially important when making a motion that will need to go into the minutes. A simple, “This is John and I move that….” should suffice—unless, of course, your name isn’t John, or there are three Johns on the call.

8. Loquacious types (like me) who find the sound of their own voice so euphonious they tend to dominate the call need to remind themselves to hold back to give others a chance. Chairs have an even greater responsibility to elicit input from reticent participants. We have a member who says so little that one night no one realized he was on a call. Luckily the discussion about him that ensued was of his many gifts and not negative. Give the lurkers a chance.

9. Try to hold the calls to an hour at most. While three-hour calls are not unknown at AACD, we try to remember that both volunteers and staff have a life outside of the Academy, however boring and unrewarding. For the same reason, calls on Friday nights or weekends are usually off-limits, though there may be times when that’s the only possibility.

10. Try to take the call on time, so others don’t spend their time waiting for you. And while some socializing is normal, your ten-minute dissertation on why your favorite should have won on American Idol may make the call seem sempiternal to a member who arose at 2:00 am to participate from Britain.

11. Lastly, sticking to the agenda and to the time limit allocated for each item, as much as possible, makes the call more productive for all attendees.

Common sense and courtesy go far toward making conference calls better, as they do in all areas of life. But they seem too easy to forget on the telephone. And volunteers who feel their time is wasted will be less likely to participate in the future.

Robert A. Hall, CAE, Executive Director of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (www.aacd.com) in Madison, WI has been an Association Executive since 1982, following five terms in the Massachusetts Senate. Contact him at bobh@aacd.com. Erin Roberts, MSW, is Director of the AACD Charitable Foundation. Eric Nelson is Director of Public relations at AACD. Together, they have a combined time on conference calls of three millennia.

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