Claire Hart Business English Lessons Plans (2012)

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How To Write A Meeting Agenda

1. What´s the most important thing you need to do before you hold a meeting?

2. What are the advantages of having a meeting agenda? 3. How do you decide what should be on a meeting agenda?

4. What information about the meeting should you include in the heading section of

the agenda?

5. What point(s) is it important to include at the start of the agenda? 6. How specific should your agenda points be?

7. What point should always come at the end of an agenda in English?

If you want to hold a proper meeting, the most im______ things you can do is to create

an agenda. This should be sent to all at_______ in advance to give everyone time to

look at the topics and prepare what they need to say. Agendas highlight the pu_______ of the meeting and the decisions that need to be made. How can you write a useful

agenda?

Without an agenda, meetings don´t have enough fo______ and decisions will not be

made because attendees will go off the point and won´t understand what needs to be achieved. I should be clear at this point that there is nothing wrong with a brainstorming

session where an agenda would not be required, but for more formal meetings with

specific questions, problems and issues that need at_______ and s_______, an agenda

should always be given.

When setting the items of the agenda it is best to formally request content from the

attendees. This will give people a chance to add anything they feel is important. You

must give people time to reply so do this step as early as possible. Sending a simple email to the pa_________ is fine. It is worth writing the agenda first and sending this

out with the request since it will give people a better idea of the subject matter and

appropriateness of their meeting topics. Of course there will be an 'any other business'

section at the end of the meeting, but as many topics as possible should be set in the

agenda so that a timescale can be more accurately estimated. If there are fourteen t_______ left at the end of a meeting that only lasts for an hour because you didn't

know about them in advance, then these are likely to be rushed and not explored fully or

the meeting will ov_________.

Every meeting agenda should contain a certain amount of general information in the

heading section. This needs to be information on the meeting pa________ rather than

its co________. For example note the date, the start time, the end time and the

location. If this is sent in advance, it will be clear to everyone when and where the meeting will be held. It is a good idea to se__ any specific aims in this section. Say for

example you are holding the meeting to decide upon the strategy needed for an office

move. This should be noted at the top so all parties are aware of the topic. This should

stop people trying to put in inappropriate agenda items.

It is usual to have a section for attendees so that everyone knows who will be coming.

This will also allow them to suggest anyone else they feel should be present that you

have not included. This can be a simple list. If anyone is required to bring specific items

to the meeting other than a notepad and pen then you should let them know in advance. If you needed a specific maths problems solved and hadn´t told people to bring their

calculators then you would be at a serious disadvantage when nobody has one. Time

would be wasted while they all went back to their desks to get them.

Claire Hart Business English Lessons Plans (2012)

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Once this general information is listed, it is time to add the agenda topics. The first

section is 'ap________ for ab________' since there may be people who cannot make it

on the day. This section is required for the mi_______ ta________ to note the actual attendees. Some meetings are held on a regular ba______ such as weekly planning

meetings and project meetings. If this is the case then a section must be included called

'mi_______ of the last meeting.' This section will go over the actions resulting from the

last meeting and follow them up. If they have been completed then they can be deleted from everyone's list and if they have not, then the action would still stand and may need

to be discussed further.

The next agenda items will be specific to the topic of your meeting. Using the example of an office move, agenda items may be as follows; purpose of the move, location of the

new building, responsibility for the move itself, informing the staff, marketing the move

to clients and contacts and finally the responsibility for health and safety once the move

is completed. Of course this is a simplified list, but hopefully it gives an idea of how to set re______ agenda points. All items must so______ one issue and should add

something to the overall solution required. The items should flow in a logical order and

be connected with each other. Think about what needs to be completed first before

something else can be done. What are the dependencies? The office move cannot be

marketed to clients before it has happened so this will logically be further down the list than items about the move itself.

When all relevant items are on the agenda there should be a section called 'Any other

business.' This will allow any last minute things to be discussed. Hopefully, if you have completed an agenda well, this section will be short as everything will be covered on the

agenda points already set. Do not allow people to distract everyone from the main

a____ of the meeting. If people want to discuss unrelated items then suggest they email

or set up a separate meeting.

The agenda will be in a different format and will include different things depending on

the type of meeting and who will attend. An all-day meeting in which people from

outside the company or members of the public will attend may well need to include

agenda points in a more specific time format. Agenda points may include introduction, tea and coffee break, l______ etc. whereas a general office meeting would often be too

short and therefore exclude these items. The language you use would need to be simple

and contain no industry ab_________ that people outside the area of ex________ would

not understand. As the presenter of the meeting, think about what people need to see in advance to get a good idea of what will happen during the meeting.

Adapted from: http://www.microsofttraining.net/article-1110-how-write-meeting-agenda.html

Claire Hart Business English Lessons Plans (2012)

www.businessenglishlessonplans.wordpress.com

Adapted from: http://www.microsofttraining.net/article-1110-how-write-meeting-agenda.html