Meeting agenda and notes

A standing agenda for the weekly site meeting and a sheet to keep the notes in, so that decisions are recorded in one place with a date and a name next to them. The meeting rhythm, and why decisions made on the phone get restated in writing, are taught in Module 9.

The standard agenda, and why each item is on it

A weekly meeting with the same nine items in the same order takes twenty to forty minutes once everyone knows the shape. The order matters: safety first because it is not negotiable, then what happened, then what is about to happen, then the decisions that are gating it, then money, then the loose ends. Walk the site before the meeting, not after; the agenda refers to things you have just seen.

Item	What you cover	Why it is on the agenda
1. Safety and access	Anything unsafe seen on the walk; who needs access to what next week (driveway, bathroom, power, water); where children and pets will be; working hours and neighbors.	Safety is the one item nobody should feel awkward raising, so it goes first. Access questions are the cheapest problems to solve a week ahead and the most annoying to solve on the day.
2. Progress since last meeting	What was planned last week against what was done; what slipped and why; inspections passed or failed.	A plain comparison of planned against done is the only honest measure of progress. The "why" feeds the decision and issue logs.
3. Look-ahead: next two weeks	Each task in the look-ahead: who, what, prerequisites in place, materials on site, inspection to request.	The look-ahead is reviewed here, out loud, with the people who will do the work. A "yes" that turns into "well, probably" in the room is the meeting doing its job.
4. Decisions due from the owner, with dates	Every selection or decision the contractor needs from you, the date they need it by, and what happens if it is late.	Late owner decisions are among the most common causes of slippage. Putting the dates in writing, in front of you, is the discipline that prevents it.
5. Selections and deliveries	What has been ordered, written ship dates, what arrived and in what condition, what is late.	A delivery that slips changes the look-ahead; a delivery that arrived damaged changes it twice. This is where you learn it before the trade does.
6. Inspections and approvals	Inspections requested and scheduled, results, re-inspections, outstanding plan-check or engineer questions.	Inspections are holds: nothing after them moves until they pass. Knowing the date is worth more than knowing anything else that week.
7. Changes and costs	Proposed changes and their prices; approved changes; allowance overages or credits; the next payment and what it is conditioned on.	Money discussed weekly stays small. Money discussed monthly arrives as a surprise. Everything here goes to the change tracker.
8. Issues and open items	Anything from the issue log that is open: field conditions that differ from the drawings, questions waiting on the designer or engineer, quality questions.	Open items that are not reviewed weekly become closed walls. The list is short if it is read every week.
9. Next meeting	Date, time, who must attend (a trade whose work is gating next week should be in the room or on the phone).	A meeting without a successor is a conversation.

After the meeting, within the day, send the notes to everyone who attended and ask for corrections. If something was decided and no one objects to the notes, the notes are the record. That sentence is most of the reason to keep them.

Meeting notes

One row per meeting. The "start a meeting note" button adds a row dated today with the agenda headings already in the boxes, so you type under them rather than from a blank page. Decisions made here should also be copied, with their number, to the decision log; the meeting note is where it was said, the log is where it is found later.

How to use it

• Before: walk the site; read last week's row; bring the look-ahead, the budget tracker and the issue log, printed if the site has no signal.
• During: type under the headings as you go, or on paper and transcribe the same day. Record who decided each thing, not just what.
• After: send the notes, copy decisions to the decision log, update the look-ahead and the change tracker, and put the next meeting in your calendar. Print or export the binder from the binder page; this page is saved only in this browser.
• If you are overseeing a hired contractor: they may run the meeting and keep their own notes. Keep yours anyway, in your words, and compare. Differences are worth a polite question the same day.