Meetings in English

All well-structured meetings should have an agenda, which is
usually prepared by the chairperson. Depending on the type
of meeting, agendas can be formal or informal, but all should
start by stating the date, time and location of the meeting.
It is useful to include the name of the person who will be
presenting a specific agenda item. You may also find it help-
ful to include a note of the time allocated to each point.
Some more detailed agendas also state objectives for indi-
vidual agenda items, for example: "Agree on product design".
Formal agendas differ from informal agendas in that they
start with routine items, which always appear in a specific
order. In addition, each point on the agenda is clearly num-
bered. Nowadays, agendas for all but the most important
company meetings (board meetings, annual general meet-
ings) tend to use an informal style.

Catchwords and abbreviations
Note how both informal and formal agendas have a concise style and
tend to be written in note-like form, often omitting articles before nouns
and using abbreviations. For example, AOB stands for "any other busi-
ness", which refers to topics that are not covered by other agenda items
or which have arisen after the agenda was distributed.

Compiling the agenda
Besides giving the meeting structure, the purpose of the
agenda is to ensure that the time available is only used for
discussing the items listed. Some people hold that topics that
are important enough to be discussed should be included as
items on the agenda, keeping AOB to a minimum. This can be
done by asking participants to submit items for inclusion on
the agenda. Email is a practical means of doing this, espe-
cially when a large group of people is involved. If the agenda
is long, or in the case of a formal meeting, you may wish to
circulate the draft agenda to participants as an email at-
tachment, rather than including it in the body of an email.