michaelsvanbeek/meeting-agendas

Meeting Agendas and Notes

When to Use

• Preparing an agenda for an upcoming meeting
• Writing meeting notes during or after a meeting
• Following up on action items from a previous meeting
• Designing the structure for a recurring meeting
• Improving meeting effectiveness and reducing wasted time

Agenda Structure

Every meeting agenda should answer three questions before the meeting starts:

1. What are we deciding? — specific decisions to be made
2. What are we reviewing? — information to share or discuss
3. What do we need from attendees? — any pre-reads or preparation

Template

# [Meeting Name] — [Date]

**Duration:** 30 min
**Attendees:** [names]
**Pre-read:** [link to document, if any]

## Agenda

1. **[Topic]** (X min) — [owner]
   - Context: [one sentence]
   - Goal: [decision / review / brainstorm]

2. **[Topic]** (X min) — [owner]
   - Context: [one sentence]
   - Goal: [decision / review / brainstorm]

3. **Action items review** (5 min)
   - Review open items from last meeting

## Parking Lot

Items raised but deferred to a future meeting.

Rules

• Time-box every item — meetings expand to fill available time
• Assign an owner to each topic — someone drives the discussion
• State the goal — is this a decision, a review, or a brainstorm?
• Send the agenda 24 hours before — no surprises, time to prepare
• Limit to 3-5 items — more than that means the meeting is too long

Meeting Notes

Template

# [Meeting Name] — [Date]

**Attendees:** [names]

## Decisions

- [Decision 1]: [what was decided and why]
- [Decision 2]: [what was decided and why]

## Discussion Summary

- [Topic]: [key points raised, dissenting views if any]

## Action Items

| Action | Owner | Due |
|--------|-------|-----|
| [what] | [who] | [when] |

Rules

• Capture decisions, not discussion — notes should be scannable
• Every action item has an owner and a due date — otherwise it won't happen
• Send notes within 24 hours — while context is fresh
• Link to artifacts — if a doc was discussed, link to it

Recurring Meetings

For recurring meetings (standups, retros, 1:1s), define a standing structure:

| Meeting | Frequency | Standard Agenda | |---------|-----------|----------------| | Standup | Daily | Blockers, priorities today, announcements | | Sprint retro | Biweekly | What went well, what to improve, action items | | 1:1 | Weekly | Career updates, blockers, feedback | | Team sync | Weekly | Project updates, decisions needed, announcements |

Anti-patterns

| Pattern | Problem | |---------|---------| | No agenda | Meeting meanders, no clear outcome | | Too many attendees | Decision-making stalls | | No action items | Discussion without follow-through | | Meeting could be an async message | Wastes synchronous time |