Write a Business Agenda
A business meeting without an agenda is much like traveling to a new destination without a map. Without an agenda, a meeting is likely to have little focus, no direction and no course of action. By creating a good business agenda for a meeting, you will efficiently take care of business and be able to focus effectively on the future.
Steps
- Welcome attendees and call the meeting to order. At this time you may make any general announcements pertinent to the meeting or meeting space before moving forward.
- Invite the secretary and treasurer to make their reports and respond to questions. During the meeting, the secretary and treasurer reports should be officially approved by the group.
- Review old business. If your company or board has departments or divisions, each group should be given their own portion of the agenda to bring up two or three relevant items regarding past or ongoing business issues. Progress of each issue should be reported, and time should be provided for any questions and further explanations.
- Address new business. Again, each division or department should have an opportunity to inform the board or group about upcoming projects or efforts. This may be the time to ask for involvement, volunteers or other forms of participation or support. Time should be allowed for questions and follow-up answers.
- Provide an opportunity for attendees to address new issues of concern not discussed during other items of business on the agenda. This is typically called "Open Forum." During this time, new concerns or ideas can be addressed in an orderly manner. The chairperson conducting the meeting must recognize, or officially call upon, an attendee before she begins her open forum discussion.
- Close the meeting when all discussions are finished. At the time of adjourning, a new meeting date should be set. This pre-planned date should appear on the agenda. If it needs to be changed, the new date can be reflected in the minutes.
- Send the new meeting agenda to all expected attendees so they know what to expect during the meeting.
Tips
- It's often helpful to include time expectations for each point on your agenda. This gives participants an idea of how much time to block out for the meeting.
- When you type up your agenda, use an outline format and one- or two-word fragments to describe each item of business.
- Following the meeting, you may choose to adjourn into an executive session to discuss any items of concern, such as non-elected personnel or other sensitive subjects that should not be included in the minutes of the meeting.
- Before creating a business agenda, contact each department supervisor and request topics to include on the agenda.
