There are many reasons why meetings are not effective, some of these include:

• The meeting is unnecessary and revolves around discussion of trivial issues, wasting members’ valuable time
• The meeting lacks a clarity of purpose, i.e. the aims and objectives are not clearly defined
• Inappropriate style of leadership, i.e. the chairperson dominates and ignores or disregards other contributions
• The chairperson exercises little control and allows one or two members to dominate the proceedings
• The meeting is too large thereby limiting the flow of discussion and preventing all members being able to contribute
• Decisions emerge that are not truly representative
• Problems are talked about rather than being talked through
• Decisions are delayed or not acted upon
• No clear-cut decisions are made
• Minutes are inaccurate or seen as being manipulated by the chairperson or secretary for his/her own purposes
• The wrong people are present, thus preventing the meeting proceeding effectively, e.g. those present must refer to another person and are therefore unable to comment effectively