Setting the Agenda

Certify and Increase Opportunity.
Be
Govt. Certified Business Comm. Specialist

Setting the Agenda

An agenda is a list of meeting activities in the order in which they are to be taken up, by beginning with the call to order and ending with adjournment. It usually includes one or more specific items of business to be discussed. It may, but is not required to, include specific times for one or more activities. An agenda may also be called a docket.

In business meetings of deliberative bodies, the agenda may also be known as the orders of the day. Optimally, the agenda is distributed to a meeting’s participants prior to the meeting, so that they will be aware of the subjects to be discussed, and are prepared for the discussions of the meeting.

In parliamentary procedures, an agenda is not binding upon an assembly unless its own rules make it so, or unless it has been considered as the agenda for the meeting by majority vote when the meeting commences. Otherwise, it is merely for the guidance of the chair.

If an agenda is binding upon an assembly, and a specific time is listed for an item, that item cannot be taken up before that time, and must be taken up when that time arrives even if other business is pending. If it is desired to do otherwise, the rules can be suspended for that purpose.

In a workshop, the sequence of agenda items is important, as later agenda steps may be dependent upon information derived from or completion of earlier steps in the agenda. Frequently in standard meetings, agenda items may be “time boxed” or fixed so as not to exceed a predetermined amount of time. In workshops, time boxing may not be effective because completion of each agenda step may be critical to beginning the next step.

Go back to Tutorial