Robert's Rules: Creating an agenda or how to crack the whip and look good doing it.

Agendas aren’t a strictly Robert’s Rulesian thing. It can be used for nearly any meeting you’ve got, but I find it really helpful for RR meetings.

An agenda is the first thing you get for most meetings (other than the time/place information). It sets the tone for the whole thing, it gives an idea what’s going to happen.

There are lots of suggestions you’ll find online and in books and in policies about how an agenda should be written. So now I’ve decided to add mine.

1. An agenda should always say what the meeting is, what the body is, the time and date of the meeting. If your group is focused on a specific task I even would like to recommend putting your mission statement or task statement or goal statement at the top or in the footer. Keeps people on task, and keeping people on task is crucial.

2. An agenda should give times. I know this is difficult and strange to most people. But put down times. This is good for several reasons, it gives people an idea of how long the meeting should be, and if you are using Robert’s Rules you can get back on task if there are times, no times, sorry, no help. To decide times be realistic, if there is going to be discussion give enough time for a discussion. Don’t think that by just giving a few minutes it will only last a few minutes. Judge the length of time based on the controversality of the issue and the number of people you anticipate.

3. An agenda should include all business you wish to bring up, with an emphasis on items that will have an action. Other business is technically fine but I think it’s a copout. If you write the agenda you should put everything on there. If you are going to allow event announcements or the like from attendees then put “Event announcements” as an item. I also recommend letting people know that if they want their item on the agenda to contact you ahead of time. This keeps you from being blindsided.

4. Don’t push everything you don’t want to talk about to the end, people will mess with the agenda. If there is something that is really going to be controversial I recommend putting it in the middle. If you can have a happy or pleasant something at the end (recognizing the achievements of someone in the group is a favorite) that is ideal. It’s not at the start so it won’t over take the whole meeting and it’s far enough in that you’ll be able to call attention to keeping the group on task by not running over too long as far as time goes. The key reason for having a moment of happy at the end of the meeting is two fold. No one wants to be the one to make is so that little Joe’s accomplishments aren’t recognized and everyone does want to leave the meeting happy. If you can’t make them happy about the outcome of the situation you can mitigate that at least a little with a nice note at the end.

So say you aren’t the agenda creator you just attend these silly meetings, you want to be heard (don’t we all), how do you do that? Contact the Chair, President, or Grand High Pubah and talk to them. Be nice and know exactly what you’d like your item on the agenda to say and where you’d like it but be flexible. If you can make it very easy for them they’ll often just put it right on there. But be ready to explain yourself too. (If your group has a paid staff you might want to talk to them first, they are likely the ones who put together the agenda.)

Whether or not they have to put it on the agenda varies from group to group, sometimes it is just something you’ll have to raise at the meeting. If the person says that it’s not the right group and it needs to go before a subcommittee (this is common with a huge group) respect that and take it before the subcommittee, usually this is for your own good to keep you from looking like a moron. If however it feels like the runaround and the committee doesn’t take you seriously do bring it up at the regular meeting (this is another good time to find a buddy who’s been there for a while, if you are planning on making changes to the organization you will be surprised how many allies you can find, but look for one).

If you are going to hand something out make sure you have enough for the whole group, this is really important. People like me will make the meeting horrible for you if you don’t and they don’t like you. (Of course if you are my friend, I’ll find you a copier and make you enough copies, make friends with your crank in the back of the room.) If you are going to make a motion, write it out. If you are going to change the agenda make sure you know how exactly you want to change it.

Your agenda should have the first thing on it be opening the meeting, then approving the agenda. This of course is where things get controversial, right out the gate. You’ve spent too much or not enough time on this or that, people will try to change it. Sometimes this is a good thing, you’ve guessed wrong at the number of people or someone wants their item talked about. You change it, then approve the amended agenda (the agenda is essentially a motion) and move on with the new agenda.

If you are hoping to mess with the meeting this is a great place to do it. You can make the times unreasonable, you can offer all kinds of changes, you can have 5 additional things to talk about, the more reasonable they are the better, the more urgent the better. You can drag the approval of the agenda out into a half hour process. Then you get to the minutes. Find every single grammar, spelling, and factual error with the minutes you can. This whole process can take you more than 45 minutes. This will make people leave. This will make people mad, this will raise the tension level in the room. This will make it difficult to conduct regular business once it gets there.

A good, well written, clear agenda with times on it can make a huge difference and keep the meeting moving. It can make it seem to go a lot faster. It can make people much more prepared for what they are getting and when they are prepared they are much less likely to revolt. So prepare yourself, prepare your meeting, get ready, and revolt or calm the masses, whatever your pleasure.