A clerk's guide to producing the agenda

The agenda can be the difference between an efficient, productive meeting and one that rambles on. Find out how to prepare, draft and finalise your agenda so you can run efficient meetings.

Last reviewed on 7 October 2022
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Contents
  1. 1. Invite governors to propose agenda items
  2. 2. Prepare a draft agenda
  3. 3. Finalise it
  4. 4. Distribute it

Haley James, 1 of our independent governance experts, helped us with this article.

1. Invite governors to propose agenda items

Check your board's code of conduct to see if it sets out a procedure for governors to propose agenda items, then follow that if it does.

Otherwise, email your governors 3 weeks before the meeting to remind them of the upcoming meeting and invite them to email you with proposed agenda items within a set timescale (e.g. 3 days).

You can use the noticeboard on GovernorHub to send out emails. 

You can also add 'topics' to posts on your noticeboard, for example, to flag important conversations or messages that need to go on the agenda. Take a look at the GovernorHub help article on adding topics to posts on the noticeboard to learn how to do this.

2. Prepare a