Booster Club Meeting Agenda: Order of Business and Template

The Standard Order of Business

RONRRobert’s Rules of OrderRobert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the rulebook most booster club bylaws adopt for running meetings. It governs a club only if the bylaws adopt it, and state law and the bylaws come first.All terms sets out a standard order of business that applies whenever the bylaws or rules do not set a different one. A booster club fits it into a short frame of opening and closing items.

RONR calls item 7 “unfinished business,” not “old business.” The difference matters. Unfinished business is limited to items carried over from the last meeting (postponed, left pending when the meeting ended, or scheduled), not any topic that has come up before. A topic discussed last year and dropped is new business.

Reports Are Heard, Not Adopted

Most reports are for information. The treasurer reports balances, receipts, and payments. Members may ask questions, and the chair then says the report “will be filed.” The treasurer’s report is never adopted, because a vote to adopt it would suggest the board has verified the numbers. Verification happens through the annual financial review or audit.

When a report includes a recommendation, the officer or committee chair makes a motion to carry it out at the end of the report. Example: “On behalf of the concessions committee, I move that the club raise the price of hot dogs to $3 starting with the first home game.” That motionMotionA formal proposal that the club take an action or a position. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a motion is the only way a board or membership meeting makes a decision.All terms is handled like any other motion. The format for the monthly treasurer’s report is on The Monthly Treasurer’s Report.

Adopting the Agenda

A proposed agenda becomes the official agenda only when the board adopts it at the start of the meeting. At that time, any member may move to add an item. On a small board this usually happens by unanimous consent: “Are there any additions to the agenda? Hearing none, the agenda is adopted.”

Once adopted, the agenda binds the meeting. Changing the order afterward takes unanimous consent or a two-thirds vote. A member who wants to raise something not on the agenda waits for new business.

Using a Consent Agenda

A consent agenda groups routine items the board will approve without discussion, such as minutes, a donation acknowledgment, or the dates of next month’s concession shifts. The chair reads the list and asks whether any member wants an item removed. Any single member may pull an item for separate discussion. The rest are approved together by unanimous consent.

A consent agenda can save a large share of a short board meeting. It does not work for anything involving money beyond routine, budgeted payments, anything a member might object to, or anything the bylaws require a separate vote on.

Timing

A booster club board meeting should run 60 to 90 minutes. Long meetings lose volunteers. The president can put a target time next to each item on the draft agenda and use it to keep reports brief.

Practical rules that keep meetings short:

1. Reports are written and sent with the agenda. Officers summarize them in two minutes and take questions.
2. Committee chairs bring motionsMotionA formal proposal that the club take an action or a position. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a motion is the only way a board or membership meeting makes a decision.All terms, not open-ended discussions.
3. Discussion items that need research go to a committee or to the next meeting.
4. Member and guest comments, if the board allows them, get a fixed slot and a time limit set by a standing rule (for example, three minutes per speaker).

Notice and Distribution

The bylaws set how much notice members get for each kind of meeting. A club writing or revising its bylaws should set a specific minimum, such as 10 days’ written notice for general membership meetings. Sending the agenda with the notice is good practice even when the bylaws do not require it.

Special meetings are different. RONRRobert’s Rules of OrderRobert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised (RONR), the rulebook most booster club bylaws adopt for running meetings. It governs a club only if the bylaws adopt it, and state law and the bylaws come first.All terms requires the notice (the “call”) of a special meeting to state the business to be transacted, and only that business may be taken up. An item left off the call of a special meeting cannot be added at the meeting, even by unanimous vote of those present, because absent members had no notice of it.

Send the following together, three to five days before a board meeting:

• The agenda
• Draft minutesMinutesThe official record of what a meeting decided, not a transcript of what people said. The secretary takes them, the next meeting approves them, and the club keeps them permanently.All terms of the last meeting
• The treasurer’s report
• Written officer and committee reports
• The text of any motionMotionA formal proposal that the club take an action or a position. Under Robert’s Rules of Order, a motion is the only way a board or membership meeting makes a decision.All terms a member plans to make that involves money or a policy change

Agenda Template

Copy, fill in, and send with the meeting notice.

[Club name] Booster Club
[Board / General Membership] Meeting Agenda
Date: [date]   Time: [start time] to [target end time]
Location: [address or video link]

1. Call to order and confirmation of quorum ([President]) [time]
2. Adoption of the agenda
3. Approval of the minutes of the [date] meeting (draft attached)
4. Consent agenda (items below are approved together unless a member asks to remove one)
   a. [routine item]
   b. [routine item]
5. Reports of officers
   a. President's report ([President])
   b. [Other officer] report
   c. Treasurer's report ([Treasurer]) (attached)
6. Reports of standing committees
   a. [Committee name] ([Chair]), recommendation: [motion text, if any]
   b. [Committee name] ([Chair])
7. Reports of special committees
   a. [Committee name] ([Chair])
8. Special orders
   a. [Election, bylaws amendment, or other item scheduled for this meeting]
9. Unfinished business
   a. [Item postponed from the [date] meeting]
10. New business
    a. [Motion text submitted in advance by [member]]
    b. Other new business from the floor
11. Member and guest comments (three minutes per speaker)
12. Announcements
    Next meeting: [date, time, location]
13. Adjournment