An effective meeting involves the rational use of the working time of participants. For this purpose, each meeting should have clear goals and an agenda. Here is a guide on how to write an agenda.
What is an Agenda in board meetings?
According to the legislation, each shareholder can know the principles and procedure for the work of the Board of Directors of the enterprise, whose securities he has in his hands. In turn, the Board of Directors is the supreme governing body, which can make certain decisions in the intervals between the meetings of the shareholders themselves. Also, the Board of Directors controls the resolutions passed at the general meeting of shareholders.
It takes a lot of time to create board meetings, work on the agenda and summarize all the items. Preparing for meetings and organizing and compiling related documents is time-consuming. Meeting organizers/administrators must perform a variety of tasks before a meeting, including:
- Setting up meeting documents: Proofreading corporate and non-corporate documents such as financial reports, compliance regulations, meeting minutes, and more.
- Drawing up the agenda: This includes drawing up the agenda first, taking into account the minutes of the previous meeting, the agenda items, and all materials related to the current agenda items. In addition, they are working on the creation of the board books to ensure that the documents in their order correspond with the agenda. In summary, the above tasks result in an enormous loss of time in preparing for just one session. Having more than one session per week, month or year will result in spending a lot of time on the above tasks. Therefore, you need to standardize and automate the session processes to save time when creating the session. In this case, board management software is the best alternative.
How to write it?
The minute of the board meeting is an information-analytical document, which records the course of discussion of issues and decisions adopted at the meeting. The minutes are drawn up based on recordings made directly during the meeting, and documents prepared in advance – texts of speeches, draft administrative documents, certificates, reports, reviews, agenda, guest list, etc. So, one of the main stages is the preparation of an agenda. Every meeting should have an agenda that needs to be thought out in advance. It is a “skeleton” of a meeting or conference.
This working paper, like a compass, guides the meeting on the right track. The agenda helps to save time and not dwell on secondary issues for a long time. A well-prepared agenda consists of:
- purpose, date, time and place of the meeting;
- list of invited persons;
- a list of discussed problems;
- the main topic;
- the date of the next meeting.
Here are some items you should always include when creating an effective meeting agenda:
- List agenda topics as issues for the team to address
Group members will be able to interact more productively if they know that they need to not just listen, but contribute and be part of the decision-making process.
- Realistically estimate the amount of time on each topic
The limited-time will allow meeting participants to adapt their comments, speak briefly and to the point so as not to waste a lot of time.
- Determine who is responsible for each topic
In addition to the formal leader of the meeting, someone should be responsible for discussing a specific topic on the agenda. This person can provide all the necessary information on the topic and explain it.