In this guide, you will learn how to prepare a meeting agenda. We have included some steps for creating an agenda, as well as a template meeting agenda.

📚 This guide is part of a series on how to facilitate meetings.

A well structured agenda is vital for a good meeting. The facilitators can help the group draw up agendas that are focussed on the aims of the meeting and are realistic. Remember: if the meeting is only an hour long, there should only be an hour's worth of items on the agenda!

You can either draw up the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, or prepare a proposed agenda in advance. It's important that everyone gets a chance to have an input and that the agenda is agreed by everyone.

How to create an agenda #

Agree the aims for the meeting and then collect agenda items from the group, preferably in advance.

Estimate the time needed for each item. If you have more agenda items than fit into the available time, have a think about priorities for this meeting – what could be tackled another time or in separate working groups?

Think about effective facilitation techniques for complex or controversial topics (e.g. starting with paired chats to explore feelings).

Work out what order to tackle agenda items in. Often it’s best to deal with difficult items after the group has warmed up but before people get tired. By alternating short and long items you can give the group a sense of progress. A common way of starting a meeting is to recap recent events or the last meeting.

How should the meeting start? Will you have introductions, a check-in or warm-up activity?

How will the meeting end? Can you think of a closing activity? Could you plan in an evaluation of the meeting near the end so you can learn for next time?

Plan in breaks, especially for meetings longer than 1½ hours.

Have a back up plan: ask yourself what you can cut from the agenda, or trim down if anything runs over your proposed time. Have some suggestions up your sleeve.

Write up the proposed agenda where everyone will be able to see it (on a white­board or flipchart, for example) or make copies to give to everyone.

Template meeting agenda #

Stop Newton Bypass Campaign

Start 7.00pm

• Introductions and check - in (12 mins)

• How the meeting works (3 mins)

• Review last minutes and action points (5 mins)

• Report back from working groups: media, finance, research, stalls (20 mins)

• Upcoming meeting with Planning Department – agree which issues to raise / questions to ask (30 mins)

Break (20 mins)

• End of year do – when and where (10 mins)

• Organising more stalls/leafleting (30 mins)

• Dates for next meetings and next facilitator (5 mins)

• Any other business (10 mins)

• Evaluation (10 mins)

End 9.30pm

Attribution #

Work from the following sources was reused:

• Facilitating Meetings by Seeds for Change (2019)