If you were a team manager WWYD?

[AdInfinitumETC]

You receive an email from a senior member of the team, asking for a team meeting to discuss morale and communication within the department.

Just interested to know how you might 'deal' with that in the first instance?

I will tell you how my line manager responded. But would be interesting to see what would be expected.

One to one meeting.

I would respond by asking for more detail.
Is this new news to you or is there an under running current regards to moral and communication?

I sent the email, after discussing some issues with the rest of the team. It has been 6 weeks! (I sent a reminder email after 3 weeks of nothing) and all I've had is a passing comment 2 weeks ago when I mentioned it in person saying "Yes, we'll have that meeting"

:/

That tells me that the Team Manager doesn't know what to do/is avoiding the issue. You should try to book a 1:1 to discuss in person.

I will try...! They do tend to ignore my emails, but I think I will just have to go into their office and force the issue a bit...

I'd book in a one-to-one with the colleague in the first instance, so that we could set some objectives for the team meeting and identify specific things to discuss.

Calling a meeting to discuss 'morale and communication' without an aim in sight or an agenda will just result in either embarrassed silence or random whinges, such as people using it as a platform to complain that the coffee machine never works properly.

I think that it demonstrates the team very obviously has an issue with communication if no one has had the decency to reply to you? More evidence for you to take forward I think?

the meeting was going to discuss specific items - the team is small.
We have genuine concerns/ issues that we have raised verbally but nothing has changed or been done, so we wanted to 'formalise' it all in some way.
it wouldn't be a "the coffee is rubbish/we want jammy dodgers, not custard creams" kind of meeting. it was a "we aren't being inlcuded in future plans for the team, so when people ask us questions, we don't have answers" or "we need to be given access to the new systems you have installed" or "its been 6 months and we've been asking about a particular job and what we're supposed to actually do and can parts be ordered and have had no answers, yet people are complaining that the job hasn't been completed"

Can you divide the issues you've mentioned into agenda points and add the objective you want to achieve? E.g.

"We aren't being inlcuded in future plans for the team, so when people ask us questions, we don't have answers" - objective, to set standards and timescales for communicating team plans and agree on a method of communication.

"we need to be given access to the new systems you have installed" - objective, agree a plan to achieve this - someone to collate list of systems and access required and to take the action to liaise with IT, again agreeing a timescale for completion.

Then, send your agenda/objectives to your line manager together with a suggested date for the meeting, and offer to chair it.

So youve sent and email to your manager asking for a meeting to discuss morale amongst your peers is that right?

if i were your line manager, honestly i would internally sigh and despair about an upcoming wooly meeting where someone is about to.complain about something without giving any solutions.

If i got an email saying the below i would be more likely to want to take te meeting forward:

'morale in the team is bit low at the moment because of i would like to organise as a short term solution to try to raise spirits, are you happy to sign off on that?

Mid to long term could you and i discuss some of the issues i've identified below, i can see a gap in your diary on would that be suitable?

[Insert factual bullet point summary of issues and possible soutions]'

I have to arrange meetings all the time with people who aren't as interested in talking to me as I am to them (yay sales) and have found that if you leave it at "let's have a meeting sometime" it will never happen. If you suggest a few dates and times they are more likely to either agree to one or come back with another suggestion - there's a bit of social pressure as it's more like an invitation then.

I also agree with PPs that it would help to make it clear that you're looking to talk about specific, actually important, issues - just so they aren't imagining the custard cream/jammy dodger debate. The added bonus is that it's then in writing that you have been trying to get some clarification and if the shit hits the fan later on they can't pretend they didn't know there was a problem.

Put the meeting in everyone's diaries (that usually energises them) and come up with suggestions for solutions and Circulate these pre meeting

The only thing I notice about your OP is it does seem a bit 'us' and 'the manager' as @Gina2012 said, maybe putting it in a positive way, suggesting solutions etc might be the best way to go about it.