Having effective project status meetings

              
Ever attended project status meetings where you are spending a lot time preparing notes prior to? or
Are your team members repeating information everyone should already know?
If yes to any of the above, here are some tips to make your status meetings more effective.  

1. Start with the answer or current state.  For example, "we are at planned" or "we are two weeks late". 
2. Structure discussion around risks and issues/Exceptions. No need to share information on items going as planned. Also always have a plan or options if you have issues.
3. Clarify and confirm upcoming milestones. Go no further than 2 weeks ahead otherwise you keep repeating items.
4. Schedule the status meeting the second workday of each week. It allows for using the first workday to gather information for the meeting and using the the last three full days to act on the milestone guidance from the last portion of the meeting.
   

For more details on this article by 

Kevin Korterud, go to http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2013/10/best-weekly-status-meeting-eve.html