FREE 10+ Meeting Outline Samples in PDF | MS Word

A meeting will be successful when the manager, team leader, or facilitator discreetly plan and organize the whole event. The one in charge should be knowledgeable about the primary aim or objective, the appropriate theme, key participants, and materials and resources required for the meeting. One of the essential tools necessary for the meeting is having a systematic agenda or outline. It is the most tangible expression of the meeting’s purpose. A clear and efficient meeting outline can really help you maintain order and attain foresight about the topics to be discussed in the meeting. In this article, we have some downloadable meeting outline samples to guide you. Please read the full article!

FREE 10+ Meeting Outline Samples

1. Sample Committee Meeting Outline

2. Meeting Outline Programme

3. Project Team Meeting Outline

4. Scout Meeting Outline Template

5. Strategic Planning Meeting Outline

6. Sample Board Meeting Outline

7. Meeting Agenda Outline Template

8. Management Meeting Course Outline

9. Sample Consult Meeting Outline

10. Sample Club Meeting Outline

11. Sample Meeting Outline Template

What is a Meeting Outline?

Based on the book “Leading Effective Meetings, Teams, and Work Groups in Districts and Schools,” a meeting outline provides the team members or department employees with a guide to the proceedings and encourages them to focus on upcoming activities. Without an outline, certain members of the team or department may have trouble understanding the main objective of the meeting. 

How to Write a Meeting Outline?

Several meetings only consume an enormous time in some workplaces and those kinds of meetings appear to be all over the place, without  purpose based on the study conducted by Verizon Business. To run a short yet productive meeting, you need to learn some skills in writing an efficient meeting outline. For some people, preparing an outline for the meeting may seem like a daunting task. But don’t worry. In this section, we provide some useful tips that you can learn and apply from: 

 

1. Prepare your agenda early

This article by Howie Jones for Calendar suggested to avoid waiting until the last minute. Begin creating your meeting agenda or outline at least 1-3 days advance. Preparing ahead of time provides you with a plethora of time to make a professional document and incorporate any changes based on your team feedback. Then, you may send your agenda or outline out to those attending the meeting. In this way, they familiarize themselves on the potential topics and can prepare accordingly.

2. Clearly define your meeting objective

Do you want to share an update with your team? Do you want to make a decision together? Based on an article, you must give a brief overview of what the meeting will cover without going into specific agenda items. Here is an analogy: Before watching the whole TV drama or movie, people usually check on the official trailer or short snippets of a particular series or film. Similarly, as the production director of the meeting, you should provide some “short previews” to your participants through a concise objective found in your outline. 

3. Estimate a realistic amount of time for each topic 

Don’t overload your meeting with too many items and topics. Be realistic  and focus on your priorities so that you can establish meaningful discussions with your team members or department employees. Carefully examine the length or period of time of each item such as introduction, question and answer, evaluation, decisions and agreement, etc.

4. Get feedback from others  

Ask your team members and encourage them to suggest and comment about agenda items. Know their reasons why a specific item should be discussed. If you don’t agree to the addition of the item, clearly tell them your explanation to your decision in a calm tone and respectful manner. Also, you can let them know to have a one-on-one or personal conversation with you through a phone call, or chat if there is anything that your team members need to discuss with you regarding the meeting.

FAQs

Writing an outline for your business, event, or any kinds of meetings is valuable in terms of improving effectiveness of the meeting and producing top quality decisions. As a manager or team leader, it is important to show great performance, insight, understanding, action, decisiveness, thought processes and leadership in the organization or company you’re working with.  Additionally, the ability to create an effective outline for your meetings remarkably proves that you have these good qualities. Therefore, we give you some downloadable and printable meeting outline samples here in PDF and Word formats to assist you. Click the templates in this article and start downloading now!