How do I write a meeting agenda?

Good preparation is half the battle. That applies to a business meeting too. Well-prepared agenda items, drawn up and sent out in advance, contribute directly to a smoothly running meeting. Participants can prepare for the meeting too, and take part with greater focus and involvement. This makes the meeting more efficient and can save a lot of time, and therefore money. But how do you write a meeting agenda?

Send the agenda to the participants together with the invitation. Ever wondered how to write a meeting agenda? Here are a few tips for when you get to work on the meeting agenda (or discussion agenda).

First of all, participants should be able to see at a glance what the meeting is about and when and where it takes place. Then it should be clear what you want to achieve with the meeting and how you're going to do that. Write this in one sentence at the top of the agenda, for example. Are you organising a creative brainstorm, will decisions be taken, is the session informative or are you going to evaluate?

You can save a lot of time by preventing participants from raising new points during the meeting. That way, everyone can prepare as well as possible too. Depending on the number of people attending, you can also ask for input before you send the invitation with the agenda.

By setting a clear purpose for the meeting, you can limit the number of agenda items and keep everyone's concentration. You can also give each item a maximum time, so the meeting doesn't run for hours. That makes not only the chair but all participants responsible for the time. Put the name of the colleague next to each agenda item too, so it's clear who has prepared what. It may also help to make someone responsible for keeping to time.

Use questions instead of loose keywords. "Which colleague will arrange the catering?" or "What is the catering budget?" instead of "catering".

A meeting agenda consists of a number of fixed and a number of variable items. We explain the different items here.

The chair formally opens the meeting, often with a word of welcome. Attendance can be noted briefly here too.

After the welcome, the chair explains the agenda. He or she goes through which items will be discussed and in which order.

The chair, their assistant or the minute-taker shares messages that have come in.

The minutes of the last meeting list the agenda and action items discussed. These are gone through and evaluated one by one. After the evaluation, the action items are ticked off or, with a good reason, carried over to the next meeting.

The items you sent with the invitation are dealt with here, along with the items participants sent in later.

New points always come up during a meeting. You can deal with these under Any Other Business (AOB).

Going clockwise, the chair asks each participant whether they have any questions or remarks. During this item, everyone gets the chance to ask a question while the others listen, which prevents discussions from starting up again.

The chair formally closes the meeting and, if known, gives the date of the next one.

Would you like to make your meetings more efficient? Use the example below to make a good start on writing a meeting agenda.

You can use this structure as an example for your own meeting agenda, with your own topics. Tip: asking the participants for input beforehand can save you time. Send the agenda well in advance too, so everyone can prepare properly for the topics. And however good your meeting agenda is, you always need a chair who leads the meeting and keeps the focus.

A meeting agenda usually has fixed and variable agenda items. Fixed agenda items come back at every meeting, such as the opening, adoption of the agenda, any questions and the closing. The variable agenda items change with every meeting. In a well-structured meeting, these are always the topics of discussion. The variable agenda items are also the points on which a decision has to be taken.

Would you like to organise an efficient team meeting yourself? De Ruwenberg Estate specialises in taking complete care of meetings. We take the work off your hands on every front, from the technology and rooms to the food and drink and team building activities. The only thing left for you to do is draw up the agenda, and with these tips that should certainly work!

Written by: Robert Zentjens | Marketing Coordinator