A council meeting agenda that keeps meetings short
The agenda is the skeleton of good minutes. Here is the order of business experienced BC councils use, with ready-to-use Word and PDF agendas for council meetings and AGMs.
A clear agenda does two jobs at once. During the meeting it keeps discussion moving and stops the same topic from being reopened three times. Afterwards it becomes the outline of the minutes, because a well-run meeting produces minutes with the same headings in the same order. Councils that struggle with long meetings and late minutes almost always have an agenda problem first.
Download the agenda templates
Two ready-to-use agendas in one file: the standard council meeting agenda on page one and a complete AGM agenda on page two, with the notice, quorum, and voting references already in place. Fill in the square brackets and it is ready to send with your meeting notice. Free with your first month of StrataMinutes, along with your next council meeting's minutes and the compliance checker.
Download for Word (.docx) Download as PDF
Free for 30 days, then $29 a month. Cancel anytime. Your free month also includes the minutes template, or skip the write-up entirely: StrataMinutes prepares the finished minutes from your rough notes.
The standard order of business
The Strata Property Act does not prescribe an agenda for council meetings, so this is convention rather than law. It is the order most BC strata councils and property managers use, and the one our own documents follow. Here is how it opens:
- Call to order. Note the time and who is chairing.
- Confirmation of quorum. Under the Standard Bylaws: two members for a council of two to four, three for a council of five or six, and four for a council of seven.
- Approval of the agenda. Thirty seconds that prevents surprise topics.
- Approval of previous minutes. A motion, a seconder, and the result.
Habits that keep meetings under an hour
Circulate the agenda before the meeting, with the financial figures and any quotes attached. Council members who have read the package vote in minutes; council members seeing a roof quote for the first time debate it for forty.
Put a decision beside every item. "Parkade membrane" is a conversation. "Choose one of three parkade quotes" is a decision. Wording the agenda around decisions produces motions, and motions are exactly what the minutes must record.
Park the unexpected. New topics raised mid-meeting go to new business or to next month's agenda. That single habit shortens meetings more than any other.
From agenda to minutes
If the meeting followed the order above, the minutes almost write themselves: the same numbered headings, with what was decided under each. Our free minutes template mirrors this structure, and our guide to taking minutes during the meeting shows what to write under each heading while people are still talking.
Let us handle the minutes themselves
StrataMinutes turns your council's rough notes into complete, professionally formatted minutes that meet the requirements of the Strata Property Act, usually within minutes. Every document comes with a compliance checklist.
Free for 30 days, then $29 a month. Cancel anytime.
This page is general information for BC strata councils, not legal advice. See the current text of the Strata Property Act and the Strata Property Regulation on BC Laws.
Related guides
Minutes Template
Minute-Taking Guide
Quorum Rules
Secretary Duties