If you haven’t already had a lack-luster meeting at some point in your life, I prophesize that it will eventually happen to you.
Most of us have been there. That useless meeting might have even been that group project gathering you just had the other day. You know, the meeting where you met at the library to discuss with your group mates about what topic to conduct your presentation on, only to find that no one came with any ideas.
One guy in your group seems to dominate the conversation with irrelevant small talk about Lil Wayne’s new rap single and Bitcoin. You and another group member finally start googling different topic ideas only to finally settle on the bubonic plague 30 minutes later.
Now that you got your topic, your group doesn’t really know what the next step is. You look over your professor’s vague instructions while thinking he secretly wanting to set everyone up to fail.
What your team suffers from is lack of preparation!
If your group simply made a small list of what needs to be accomplished at your met up ahead of time, your groupmates would have already collected some ideas for good presentation topics. You could have even spoken to your professor ahead of time to clear up any confusion over the instructions he sent out.
Creating a simple agenda ahead of your meeting could have changed the dynamic of your meeting for the better!
Here are the 7 important reasons, every meeting needs an agenda:
1. Allows Attendees to Give Feedback
Letting attendees know that you’re creating an agenda for an upcoming meeting allows them to influence the topics that will be discussed and promotes participation amongst the group.
2. Helps Attendees Prepare for a Meeting
Agendas let participates know what issues are going to be discussed and allows them to think about the issues in advance and conduct research.
It also eliminates any excuses an attendee might make if they arrive with nothing to contribute since they were notified of there role in the agenda.
3. Keep Meetings Better Focused and Flowing
Sometimes meetings can get people really fired up with discourse that could go on for hours and other times the flame of a meeting can flicker under little discussion or a lack of participation.
Having a set time limit and agenda can keep the meeting on track. Each group member can be assigned to an issue on the agenda prompting the other members to give their opinion on the subject and to make a group decision.
The leader (the chairperson) needs to adhere to the agenda, leading discussion back to the planned subject when the group gets off-topic.
4. Ensures that the Most Important Items are Covered
While it can be fun to discuss shirt designs or the food choices for the next meeting, these topics are not always the priority of a current meeting and are most-likely best left of a committee meeting.
When collecting agenda items, the list can get expansive. Most people aren’t going to want to attend a meeting that’s longer than an hour. It’s your group job to vote on the priority of agenda items, that way the most important issues are covered.
5. Helps Restrain Participants from Speaking Out of Turn.
Your group may have trouble with attendees that tend to dominate the conversation. It’s great that they have their opinions and that they’re so passionate about their student organization, but it’s important to hear from everyone at the meeting.
6. Creates an Outline for Minutes
Agendas can be used to create something called a “skeletal minutes”. Skeletal minutes are an outline of minutes prepared in advance a meeting.
In a way, agendas are skeletal minutes. You already his a list of topics with the names of those in charge of directing discussion of those issues. So at your meeting, you just have to record the decisions made on those topics to the agenda and “Wah-Lah!” … you have the meeting’s minutes!
7. Ensures Only the Essential People Show Up
Not everyone needs to be at a meeting. If a member or an officer sees that a meeting has no need to include them, they can spend their time more wisely.
What are the Meeting’s Minutes Used For?
