Agenda Minutes Download Oct 22, 2019 — Posted Oct 4, 2019 11:05 AM Drugs 411- So You Hopefully Don't Have to Dial 911 - This is an Adults Only Program, 18 years. Agenda, “things to be done,” is the plural of the Latin gerund agendum and is used today in the sense “a plan or list of matters to be acted upon.” In that sense it is treated as a singular noun; its plural is usually agendas: The agenda is ready for distribution. The agendas of last year's meetings are printed in. An agenda presented while the meeting is currently on going can help the meeting attendees be aware of what the group is currently talking about. Agenda examples in Excel or in Word is helpful should these documents be provided to the individual members of the organization present within the meeting.

An agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up, beginning with the call to order and ending with adjournment. It usually includes one or more specific items of business to be acted upon. It may, but is not required to, include specific times for one or more activities. An agenda may also be called a docket, schedule, or calendar. It may also contain a listing of an order of business.

Etymology[edit]

Look up agenda in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Agenda is an abbreviation of agenda sunt or agendum est, gerundive forms in plural and singular respectively of the Latin verb ago, agere, egi, actum 'to drive on, set in motion', for example of cattle.^[1] The meaning is '(those things/that thing) which must be driven forward'. What is now known in English as an agenda is a list of individual items which must be 'acted upon' or processed, usually those matters which must be discussed at a business meeting. Although the Latin word is in a plural form, as a borrowed word in English, the word is singular and has a plural of 'agendas'.^[2]

Explanation[edit]

An agenda lists the items of business to be taken up during a meeting or session.^[3] It may also be called a 'calendar'.^[4] A meeting agenda may be headed with the date, time and location of the meeting, followed by a series of points outlining the order in which the business is to be conducted. Steps on any agenda can include any type of schedule or order the group wants to follow. Agendas may take different forms depending on the specific purpose of the group and may include any number of the items.

In business meetings of a deliberative assembly, the items on the agenda are also known as the orders of the day. Optimally, the agenda is distributed to a meeting's participants prior to the meeting, so that they will be aware of the subjects to be discussed, and are able to prepare for the meeting accordingly.

In a workshop, the sequence of agenda items is important, as later agenda steps may be dependent upon information derived from or completion of earlier steps in the agenda. Frequently in standard meetings, agenda items may be 'time boxed' or fixed so as not to exceed a predetermined amount of time. In workshops, time boxing may not be effective because completion of each agenda step may be critical to beginning the next step.

In parliamentary procedure, an agenda is not binding upon an assembly unless its own rules make it so, or unless it has been adopted as the agenda for the meeting by majority vote at the start of the meeting.^[5] Otherwise, it is merely for the guidance of the chair.^[5]

If an agenda is binding upon an assembly, and a specific time is listed for an item, that item cannot be taken up before that time, and must be taken up when that time arrives even if other business is pending.^[6] If it is desired to do otherwise, the rules can be suspended for that purpose.^[6]

Order of business[edit]

In parliamentary procedure, an order of business, as the name may suggest, is the sequence of items that is to be taken up during a meeting. This sequence may be a standard order of business or a sequence listed on an agenda that the assembly has agreed to follow.

Standard Order of Business[edit]

Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR) has the following standard order of business:^[7]

1. Reading and approval of minutes^[8]
2. Reports of officers, boards and standing committees^[9]
3. Reports of special committees^[10]
4. Special orders^[10]
5. Unfinished business and general orders^[11]
6. New business^[12]

The above standard order of business has been found to be appropriate for meetings in most organizations.^[7]

The 'special orders' and 'general orders' refer to items of business that usually come from a previous meeting (the word 'order' in these two cases do not refer to 'sequence' but instead is more like a 'command' in its meaning).^[7] Usually items become special orders or general orders by adoption of the motion to postpone.^[11] A difference between these orders is that, in general, a special order can interrupt other business when the time comes for its consideration, while a general order waits until the pending business is taken care of.^[13] For example, say a motion is being considered and then postponed to the next meeting. This postponed motion becomes a general order for the next meeting. When the time for 'general orders' comes up in the order of business, consideration of the postponed motion is resumed.

'New business' is where the bulk of the discussion as well as decisions in the meeting usually takes place. If a group has not adopted an agenda or an order of business, all of its business would be considered 'new business'.^[14]

Optional headings[edit]

Organizations may have the following optional headings in their order of business:

• Opening ceremonies - Items may include invocation, singing of the national anthem, reciting of the pledge of allegiance, reading of the mission of the organization, recognition of dignitaries, etc.^[12]
• Roll call (taking of attendance)^[15]
• Review and adoption of the agenda^[16]
• Consent calendar - tool used by deliberative assemblies with a heavy workload to consider a series of items in bulk with a single vote^[15]
• Good of the order, General Good and Welfare, or Open Forum - for other issues to allow a participant to raise another point for discussion^[17]
• Announcements - may 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^[17]
• Program (such as an educational talk, film, or guest speaker)^[17]

An agenda may list any of the above items.^[18][19][20]

Call for the orders of the day (RONR)

Class	Privileged motion
In order when another has the floor?	Yes
Requires second?	No
Debatable?	No
May be reconsidered?	No
Amendable?	No
Vote required	A single member can demand it without a vote; Two-thirds vote to set aside the orders of the day

Call for the orders of the day[edit]

A call for the orders of the day, in parliamentary procedure, is a motion to require a deliberative assembly to conform to its agenda or order of business.^[21]

In Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the 'call' may be made by one member, and does not require a second. The chair must then proceed to the scheduled item of business, unless the assembly decides otherwise by a two-thirds vote.^[22]

The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure does not have this motion and instead suggests that a member can request that the body take up the scheduled item of business, or make a more formal point of order.^[23]

In historical writing, the expression 'order of the day', as in 'abolition meetings became the order of the day',^[24] refers to an activity that was widespread, replacing other activities, at a particular moment in history.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Cassell's Latin Dictionary, ed. nMarchant & Charles
2. ^See dictionary definitions of 'agenda' at Oxford Dictionaries and thefreedictionary.com ('Usage Note: The term agendum has largely been supplanted by its Latin plural agenda, which is treated as a singular noun and denotes a list or program of numerous things, as in The agenda for the meeting has not yet been set. In this use, the plural of agenda is agendas.').
3. ^Puregger, Marjorie (1998). The Australian Guide to Chairing Meetings. Queensland, Australia: University of Queensland Press. p. 20. ISBN0-7022-3010-3.
4. ^'Legislative Schedule'. www.house.gov. U.S. House of Representatives. Retrieved 2016-01-15. A congressional calendar is an agenda or list of business awaiting possible action by the House or Senate
5. ^ ^abRobert III, Henry M. (2011). 'Frequently Asked Questions about RONR (Question 14)'. The Official Robert's Rules of Order Web Site. The Robert's Rules Association. Retrieved 2016-01-15.
6. ^ ^abRobert, Henry M.; et al. (2011). Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised (11th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. p. 373. ISBN978-0-306-82020-5.
7. ^ ^abcRobert 2011, p. 26
8. ^Robert 2011, p. 354
9. ^Robert 2011, p. 355
10. ^ ^abRobert 2011, p. 356
11. ^ ^abRobert 2011, p. 358
12. ^ ^abRobert 2011, p. 360
13. ^Robert 2011, p. 368
14. ^Robert 2011, p. 25
15. ^ ^abRobert 2011, p. 361
16. ^Robert 2011, p. 372
17. ^ ^abcRobert 2011, p. 362
18. ^Robert III, Henry M.; et al. (2011). Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised In Brief (2nd ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Da Capo Press. pp. 16–17. ISBN978-0-306-82019-9.
19. ^'The Board Meeting – Agenda Development | Idaho Commission for Libraries'. libraries.idaho.gov. Archived from the original on 2015-09-15. Retrieved 2016-01-17.
20. ^Puregger 1998, p. 21
21. ^Robert 2011, pp. 219–220
22. ^Robert 2011, p. 221
23. ^Sturgis, Alice (2001). The Standard Code of Parliamentary Procedure, 4th ed., p. 232
24. ^'Appendix'. Anti-Slavery Record. Vol. 1 no. 12. December 1835. p. 146.

Whether you need a basic meeting agenda, an executive board meeting agenda or a PTA committee meeting agenda, Vertex42's agenda templates can help you get started. Simply choose an agenda format that best meets your needs. Be sure to scroll through the entire page to see all the sample meeting agendas. Download one of the templates that is closest to what you want, then customize it based on ideas you may have seen in the other examples.

This Page (contents):

Meeting Agenda Template Collection

The Vertex42 meeting agenda templates below can be downloaded for free, but are copyrighted and subject to the license agreement below.

Authors: Jon Wittwer, Brent Weight, Jim Wittwer
License: Private Use (not for resale or distribution, but designed to be shared with those attending the meeting).

Basic Meeting Agenda Template

for Word and Google Docs

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This meeting agenda template keeps things simple and offers a variety of ways for you to organize your meeting's discussion points. The lower portion provides your attendees with a space to write down important notes and action items that pertain to them, making this a useful agenda format for printing out if attendees are still using paper and pen. This template uses custom font styles to make it easy to maintain a professional look and feel as you add more topics.

Staff Meeting Agenda Template

for Word and Google Docs

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⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

A staff meeting agenda ought to look clean and professional and should be easy to update. This template suits that purpose just fine. Although it doesn't hurt to have at least one printed copy of your agenda, consider using an agenda that staff can access in real time (using Office 365 or Google Docs).

If there is any question about who should attend, include a list of requested attendees as demonstrated in this template. If you use Outlook or other scheduling software to manage meeting invites, the list of attendees within the agenda may not be as necessary. See polleverywhere.com for a useful article that describes steps for running a staff meeting.

General Staff Meeting Agenda

for Word and Google Docs

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This agenda has a professional business design and is very easy to update and customize for a large staff meeting, conference session, workshop, or pretty much any other meeting that uses a time-based schedule. In general, this format would tend to be used as a general overview of the schedule rather than an agenda that would be edited in real-time with notes and action items.

Team Meeting Agenda Template

for Word and Google Docs

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This agenda template allows you to provide your project team with an outline of your meeting ahead of time so they can come prepared, making your meeting more effective. The schedule section has an allotted time column where you can specify how many minutes you'd like each topic or discussion item to take. There are many different methods and strategies for holding effective team meetings, so we designed this template to be easy to customize.

Some Tips for Team Meetings

• Hold team meetings at the same time and place each week.
• Send the agenda out prior to the meeting.
• Make sure you identify what you hope to accomplish.
• Give recognition for progress made. Be careful to recognize team efforts and not just individuals, because recognition given to a single person for a team effort can quickly cause resentment among those who did not get recognized. For example, “We'd like to recognize Sarah and those that worked with her on project X for the amazing progress they've made.'
• Look toward the future. Spend more time on solving problems and creating plans instead of just status updates that could be given by email or other more efficient methods.
• Place the agenda in a place where everyone has access and can review and contribute. Add notes/minutes directly to the file so everyone can review.
• Maintain a list of action items separate from your agendas and minutes, so you have a single place everyone can go to view their action items. Assign someone to update the action item list in real-time during your meetings.

Meeting Agenda with Calculated Times

for Excel and Google Sheets

Download

⤓ Excel (.xlsx)⤓ Google Sheets

Description

This spreadsheet-based agenda template can help you plan a meeting that has a specific time limit. Examples might include conference schedules, church meetings, funeral programs, wedding programs, etc. You wouldn't necessarily use this for creating a printable bulletin or program (those tend to be more fancy), but it can be used to help plan these types of meetings. Enter the start time and then enter the estimated time in minutes for each part of the meeting. The spreadsheet calculates the start time of each item for you.

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

Whether you need a board meeting agenda, team meeting agenda or a sales meeting agenda, this template will help your meeting stay focused and on track. Simply fill in the critical information and distribute prior to your meeting so that everyone is prepared for your vital business discussions.

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This version of the business agenda uses Tables to aid in the layout of the information.

Committee Meeting Agenda Template (Outline Format)

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This standard committee meeting template is perfect for PTA meetings, Neighborhood meetings and Club meetings. It is prefilled with typical meeting activities. Fill in the details and add your discussion items to help your meeting stay productive.

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

This version contains the same information as the Outline Format above, but it uses Tables to aid in the organization of the information on the page.

Tip: Take notes on your copy of the agenda during the meeting to help you generate coherent meeting minutes.

Download

⤓ Word (.docx)⤓ Google Docs

Description

Agenda Meaning

Customize this template for your board of directors or executive board meeting. Corporate board meetings have a more formal agenda than many other types of meetings, but template was designed to be simple to edit. For example, if your meeting has different presenters, you can change the Action column to be used to list your presenters. Below are tips we have found that help take the difficulty and stress out of the meeting preparation process.

Tips For an Effective Board Meeting

• Start planning early. It takes time to get Board Books together (for corporate boards).
• Make sure your meetings are scheduled far in advance. Decide on a cadence (typically quarterly).
• Send agendas out at least 2 weeks prior to the meeting.
• Add times (in minutes) to help show due diligence was used to plan each item.
• Keep agenda items to a minimum.
• Include strategic items, administrative items and Board-related items.
• Corporate governance law requires good minutes and certain items be discussed, also roll call (see this article for more information).

Resources to Improve Your Meetings

Business Meeting Agenda Examples

• Running Effective Meetings at mindtools.com - Talks about the importance of establishing and sticking to an objective.
• How to Run a More Effective Meeting at nytimes.com - Using a meeting agenda effectively is one of the keys.

Related Content

Other Free Meeting Agenda Templates

The Microsoft Office® template gallery has a small collection of Agendas that can be downloaded for free. You can find even more by opening up Word and going to File > New and searching for 'agenda' in the search field. Below are some examples of types of agendas you may find this way:

• Formal and Informal Meeting Agendas - A formal agenda may follow the Robert's Rules of Order, while an informal agenda is just a useful way to list topics and presenters. There are examples of both.
• Community Meeting Agenda Template - A simple agenda useful for non-profit organizations, clubs, and other groups that need a fairly formal meeting structure.
• Team Meeting Agenda - This agenda includes a list of topics and a list of presenters and the allotted times for each presentation.
• All Day Conference or Workshop Meeting Agenda - Communicates times and places for meetings or workshops, including times, topics, who is presenting.
• PTA Committee Meeting Agenda Template - You can use this as a guide for running your school PTA meetings.
• Conference Agenda with Tracks - When you have a large conference, then you may want to divide the sessions into different tracks based on topics. You may want to search for 'conference schedule' rather than 'agenda' if you are looking for something like this.

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