Managing committee meetings
Why have meetings?
Some meetings such as Annual General Meetings (AGM's) must be held according to law and/or the constitution. It is important that meetings follow a structure, one way to do this is to plan and keep to an 'Agenda'.
The Agenda
An agenda lets everyone know what is going to be covered in a particular meeting. The agenda should be distributed in advance so everyone has time to prepare for the issues raised. The agenda should include the following points:
- Apologies
- Minutes of last meeting
- Matters arising
- Any other business
Anyone can write the agenda as long as everyone knows whose responsibility it is and how to get items onto the agenda.
Any Other Business (AOB)
It is very easy for AOB to get carried away, it is important that this section is kept for emergencies only i.e. items that could not have been predicted at the time the agenda was drawn up. You may want to ask at the start of the meeting if anyone has 'Any other business' to raise so that the timing of the meeting can be adjusted accordingly.
Minutes
It is usually the secretary's role to take accurate minutes of the meeting; these should then be distributed to everyone that attended the meeting but also to those who were unable to attend. The minutes should be distributed well before the next meeting so that any errors can be picked up.
