How to Cancel a Meeting Via Email and Samples

Working in a professional setting, meetings are an inevitability. Run from it, dread it, meetings come eventually. And most times, you know you’re attending a meeting beforehand. Hence, when the need arises to cancel a meeting via email, the most important rule is to let the other involved party know at least 24 hours beforehand.

Life is unpredictable. While you may want to attend this meeting and may have made that clear, you can’t attend all the meetings you want to. Sometimes all that’s left to do is to cancel.

As much as you can, try to attend all the meetings you’ve confirmed you’ll be attending. Scheduling a meeting often causes people to change their schedules, oftentimes to their disadvantage. Cancelling a meeting does the same thing to their schedules.  This is why an email cancelling a meeting is more about the other party than it is about you.

Cancel a Meeting Via Email.

An email cancelling a meeting is a formal and polite way of letting people know you’re not going to attend an already scheduled meeting. An email cancelling a meeting is written to either call the meeting off indefinitely, or to reschedule.

When rescheduling a meeting you need to make sure each party is comfortable with the time set. If the meeting is between you and another person, in the spirit of being polite, you can ask when they’re going to be free and set the meeting at a mutually beneficial time.

An email cancelling a meeting is often considered an unnecessary formality (when you could just send a text to the involved parties.­) If the meeting is an informal one between you and a work colleague, this would be correct. But in a professional setting where you’re expected to meet with your colleagues, not formally informing them could be extremely detrimental. Cancelling a meeting by email is also a great way to keep a record of your engagement with your colleagues or teammates.

When, Why and How to Cancel a Meeting Via Email.

One of the best ways to cancel an email is via call especially if the meeting was between you and another party, this is mainly because a call relays this information in real-time. If you’re having a meeting with over 5 people, calling each of them would be ineffective and counterproductive.

If you call to cancel a meeting, you should also send an email and adjust your calendar to reflect this change.

5 Quick Steps to Request a Meeting via Email

When Should You Cancel a Meeting? Excuses to Cancel a Meeting.

• A change in your schedule due to other work-related issues. If something comes up with work that requires more immediate attention and the priority ranks higher than the meeting, it makes sense that you would reschedule the meeting and handle the appointment with the higher priority.
• A change in your schedule due to a family emergency.  If a family emergency occurs and your presence is needed, this is a valid reason to reschedule a meeting. It’s also important to mention this reason in your email. Whether or not to include it in detail is entirely up to you.
• Cancelling because of your health. If you fall ill and cannot make it to the office, you should let the participants of your meeting know this as soon as possible.
• A double-booked appointment. Cancelling an email because of another appointment in that time slot depends on the importance and severity of both meetings. Which of them can be rescheduled and which cannot? If your other appointment is out office and can be rescheduled, you should reschedule it.
  To prevent this from repeating itself, you should make sure your meetings are properly categorized in your calendars. This way, there’s no risk of missing a meeting.

There are loads of reasons you might need to cancel a meeting via email. Reasons to cancel a meeting cannot be exhausted. It all depends on how important that meeting is to you compared to the other emergency or issue.

In most cases, cancelling a meeting via email would be sufficient. If you’re cancelling a meeting 24 hours beforehand, an email would be sufficient. But if you’re cancelling a meeting hours before, it would be encouraged to also call a participant of the meeting in addition to your email.

How to Write an Email Cancelling a Meeting.

As said earlier in this article, when cancelling a meeting, it’s more about the recipients of the email than it is about you. This is why when writing an email to cancel a meeting, you should think about the people on the receiving end of the email.

This is why you should sate their dissatisfaction by apologizing for the inconveniences caused. Your meeting cancellation email should be polite, apologetic and as much as possible, timely.

1. Give the notice in advance. If you plan to cancel a meeting, the earlier it is done the better. Canceling a meeting last minute is ineffective and downright unprofessional. If you cancel a meeting last minute, there’s a chance some members of your team may not notice this cancellation and still attend this meeting.
   So, when cancelling a meeting via email, inform the participants as early as you can beforehand.
2. Provide a Valid Reason. This option isn’t entirely set in stone. If you’re the boss, you can be ambiguous about the reason you’re cancelling the meeting. But anyone else on the team may not have that leverage. If you’re not the boss, you don’t have to be overly specific about the reason you’re cancelling. You can be a little vague.
   NB: It’s standard practice that your team lead or anyone you report to directly knows the reason for the cancellation.
3. Be respectful and apologetic in your email. Understand that participants may have cancelled engagements of their own to attend the meeting this is why your email has to express your feelings concerning the incontinence you would likely cause. In your email, use phrases like:

   “I’m sorry I can’t make this meeting…”
   “I understand this may cause an inconvenience,”

“I understand how this important this meeting is…” If the meeting will be recorded, you should make sure you listen to the recording and give your feedback afterwards.

4. Suggest a Time to Reschedule. Propose a new time to reschedule the meeting. Doing this makes the other participants know you’re still interested in the meeting and your reason for cancelling is genuine.  While proposing a new time, be aware that there may be counter-proposals as they may not fit well into other people’s schedules.

Samples on How to Cancel a Meeting Through Email

After discussing the best ways to write a cancellation email, here are some examples of how they’re used.

Email Sample to Cancel a Meeting Due to Illness

Subject: Cancellation of tomorrow’s meeting. Hello Jane, This email is to inform you that the meeting scheduled to hold tomorrow at noon has been cancelled. I’ve come down with a cold and have been instructed to be on bed rest till I feel better. Please inform the rest of the team that the meeting is rescheduled till further notice. Warm regards, Lois Kent, CEO 

Email Sample to Cancel a Meeting Due to Illness 2

Subject: Absence at tomorrow’s strategy meeting. Dear Team, I hope this email meets you well. I’m sending this email to inform everyone that I won’t be attending the meeting tomorrow as I have fallen ill and will be at the doctor’s tomorrow. I’m sorry for any inconvenience that may be caused due to my absence. Regards, Clark Allen 

Email Sample to Cancel a Meeting Due to Unavailability

Subject: Cancellation of Tomorrow’s Meeting. Dear Team, This email is to inform everyone of the cancellation of tomorrow’s meeting due to some unforeseen events that have led to my unavailability. I apologize for any inconvenience caused. We’ll reschedule sometime soon. Thank you for your time. With Regards, Peter Rogers. 

Email Sample to Change the Time of a Meeting

Subject: Change of Time for Tomorrow’s Meeting Dear Jane, I hope this email meets you well. This email is to notify you that the meeting scheduled for noon tomorrow has been scheduled for 3 PM tomorrow. Please inform the rest of the team of this recent development. Thank you for your time. Regards, Barry West, CTO

How to Avoid Cancelling Meetings

Respond to Meeting invitations with definite answers. Accepting an invitation to a meeting you’re sure you won’t attend is wrong. If you check your calendar and notice that a meeting is going to clash with another engagement, simply hit “decline” in your email. 

If you’re genuinely unsure if you’ll be attending the meeting, it’s best to respond “tentative” or “uncertain” to the invitation. This way, if you cancel your invitation a day to the meeting, it doesn’t come as a shock to your team members as they would have made contingencies for the eventuality.

Plan out your calendar carefully. By planning out your calendar, and making sure all your engagements are properly outlined, you reduce the risk of double-scheduling and cancelling because you forgot about an already scheduled meeting.

Conclusion

Canceling a meeting is something you should avoid as much as you can. If you have to cancel a meeting via email, make sure to follow the points highlighted in this article.

The post How to Cancel a Meeting Via Email and Samples appeared first on Woculus.

Ayo Oyedotun is a professional blogger and freelance writer. He reads, writes and talks about business. You can follow him on Twitter @Ayo_Oyedotun[http://twitter.com/#!/Ayo_Oyedotun] or read Business Owners’ Bible[http://woculus.com/].