Board meeting agenda template
A board agenda does two jobs: it tells people what will be decided, and it stops the meeting turning into two hours on the one item everybody has an opinion about. This template does both, and it is built around timings — because an agenda without them is a list of topics, not a plan.
Copy it, change everything, keep the shape. The two parts most volunteer boards leave out are the consent agenda and the explicit decision list, and those are the two that give you the hour back.
The template
Square brackets are yours to replace. Timings assume a 90-minute meeting; scale them, but keep the proportions — decisions should get more time than reports.
[ORGANIZATION] — Board Meeting
[DATE] · [TIME] · [LOCATION / VIDEO LINK]
Chair: [NAME] Minutes: [NAME]
Papers circulated: [DATE]
1. Call to order and quorum [2 min]
Present: [NAMES]
Apologies: [NAMES]
Quorum is [N] of [N]. Quorum present: yes / no
2. Conflicts of interest [2 min]
Any member with an interest in an item below declares it now.
3. Consent agenda — approved in one vote, no discussion [3 min]
Any board member may pull an item out for discussion.
a. Minutes of [DATE]
b. Treasurer's report for [PERIOD]
c. Membership report: [N] active, [N] joined, [N] lapsed
d. [ROUTINE ITEM]
4. Matters arising from the last meeting [5 min]
Only items with an owner and a due date. Everything else
is closed or belongs in a decision below.
[ACTION] — [OWNER] — [STATUS]
5. Decisions [45 min]
Each item: the decision to be made, the recommendation, the
cost, and who has to do the work if it passes.
5.1 [DECISION] [15 min]
Recommendation: [WHAT THE BOARD IS ASKED TO APPROVE]
Cost / impact: [AMOUNT OR "none"]
Owner if approved: [NAME]
Decision: approved / rejected / deferred to [DATE]
5.2 [DECISION] [15 min]
Recommendation:
Cost / impact:
Owner if approved:
Decision:
5.3 [DECISION] [15 min]
Recommendation:
Cost / impact:
Owner if approved:
Decision:
6. Discussion, no decision today [20 min]
Items the board is thinking about, flagged as such so nobody
believes something was settled.
[TOPIC]
7. Any other business [5 min]
Anything raised here that needs a decision goes on the next
agenda. It does not get decided today.
8. Actions agreed — read back before closing [5 min]
[ACTION] — [OWNER] — [DUE DATE]
[ACTION] — [OWNER] — [DUE DATE]
9. Next meeting: [DATE, TIME, LOCATION]
10. Close [1 min]Why it is shaped like that
The consent agenda is the biggest single saving. Reports that nobody needs to debate — minutes, the treasurer's figures, the membership numbers — are circulated in advance and approved in one vote. Any board member can pull an item out, which is what makes it safe: nothing is being slipped past anyone, it is just not being read aloud.
Separating "decisions" from "discussion, no decision today" prevents the most common post-meeting disagreement, which is two people leaving with different beliefs about whether something was agreed. If it is under item 6, it was not.
Reading the actions back before closing takes five minutes and is the difference between minutes that get written and minutes that get reconstructed from memory a fortnight later. Whoever is taking them has, at that moment, everything they need.
One thing this template deliberately does not do is put the treasurer's report at the top. It is the item most likely to overrun, and putting it before the decisions means the decisions get whatever time is left.
Free to use, adapt and hand to whoever does this job next. If something here is wrong or missing, tell us and we will fix the page — contact us.