Annotated Agenda
It is very useful to prepare an annotated agenda when going into a meeting. For those who have never used one (or heard of it), it is simply an agenda with notes on it. For the agenda that I send to the meeting participants, I annotate it to let them know why an item is on the agenda or if there are any attachments. In my example below you will see that I put brackets around the notes and italicize them. Call to Order: 1. Adoption of Agenda (Motion Required) 2. Approval of Previous Minutes of December 25, 2016 (Attached) (Motion Required) 3. ABC Matter (Deferred from November meeting) (For Discussion) 4. Staff Communications (15 minutes to discuss any concerns from staff) For the agenda for the Chair and myself, I prepare it as above, but with cheat notes so he will not forget some points he wants to make or that I want to remind him to bring up. My new boss had never used an annotated agenda before so when I started using it he kept telling me how useful it was. You will s