Meeting Agendas

Meetings are a great way to communicate in the professional world. However many meetings are fuzzy and unplanned, leading to confusion and frustration. A meeting agenda is essential to keep the communication clear, on task and on time.

A simple meeting agenda may be headed with the calendar date, time and location of the meeting, followed by a series of points outlining the order of the agenda. Agenda items should focus on the deliverable from each step. Steps on a typical agenda may include:

• Welcome/open meeting
• Review of prior minutes meeting(s)
• Purpose of the topic of discussion
• Old business or open issues
• New business such as specific points to be discussed — this section is where the bulk of the discussion as well as decisions in the meeting usually takes place
• Close meeting to include review of key points, discussion of assignments, communications plan for what to tell others not in the meeting, and confirmation of the next meeting, if any

The following PDF documents provide you with samples and a useful template:

- Example of a Work, Health and Safety (WHS) meeting

- Example of a catalogue meeting in a store

- Writeable template