Information Technology Services Division
Guide to Meeting Etiquette

For the Remote Participant

• Use a headset with a microphone. You will be able to hear better and your speech will be clearer to others.
• Keep your microphone muted unless you are participating in the discussion. Background noise such as drinking coffee, barking dogs and automobile traffic is disrupting to a meeting.

For the Participant in a Conference Room

• Don't shuffle papers on the table, tap your pencil, click your pen, etc. This noise will overwhelm the conversation for remote participants.
• Give remote participants the opportunity to speak. Periodically ask if they have questions or something to add.
• Speak clearly and loudly enough so that everyone in the room can hear you.
• Don't have sidebar conversations with others. Remote participants can't hear these.

For the Host

• At the beginning of the meeting, take a moment to state who is participating. This is especially useful if multiple people are in a conference room, but some participants are remote.
• Remind remote participants to mute their microphone unless participating in the discussion.
• Don't ignore remote participants. Ask them if they have questions, especially if they haven't participated.
• If you ask a remote participant a question, give them a few seconds to answer. They may need to unmute their microphone before they reply.
• Watch for sidebar conversations. Politely ask the participants to keep to one conversation at a time.
• When the meeting is over, announce this to the remote participants and select "end meeting" in WebEx. Be sure to hang up the telephone line as well, if one was used.