Order of Business

Program Contact

Autumn Britt, 4-H Program Manager
Phone Number509-588-7817 Email Address • autumn.britt@wsu.edu

Adapted from “Order of Business: 4-H Club Meeting” created by Kirk Astroth, University of Arizona Cooperative Extension, by Alison White, Washington State University Extension, October 2017.

Description

Participants will learn how a business meeting is organized and determine how they might want to organize their own club meeting agenda.

Materials

• Notecards or piece of paper pre-printed with one agenda item each from a typical business meeting: Call to Order, Welcome Guests (if any), Committee Reports (if any), Roll Call, Treasurer’s Report, Adjourn Business Meeting, Announcements, Pledges, Correspondence (if any), Social Time, Minutes, Unfinished Business, Educational Program or Project Work, New Business
• Create one set of notecards for each group of participants
• A large workspace to spread out the cards, such as a floor, table, or outdoor space around which all participants can gather

Procedure

1. If this activity is being done by a small group, participants can work as a single team. If the group is larger than six participants, the facilitator may want to divide them into teams of two to four individuals.
2. Distribute the set of cards to each team.
3. Ask participants to work together to assemble the business meeting agenda from start to finish. Encourage them to talk through their reasoning in order to come up with their final order.
4. After the group has their final order, go through what they’ve come up with.
5. Have the group explain their reasoning for the meeting agenda they’ve created. If there are items out of order, allow them to share why their way makes more sense for their club.

Debrief Questions

• How did the group decide the order of business – was it through consensus, majority vote, or another method?
• Was it difficult to determine the order of business?
• How does an agenda help the group conduct their meeting?
• How might a business agenda look differently in a 4-H club than in another organization, like a charity, church, or school?
• What order makes most sense for your 4-H club and why?

Variations

• Hand out one card to each participant and have them organize themselves in a line to represent the order of the business meeting.
• If this is a review activity, don’t allow participants to talk while they organize their meeting as an extra challenge.

Standard 4-H Club Meeting Agenda

• Call to Order
• Pledges
• Welcome Guests
• Roll Call
• Minutes
• Correspondence
• Treasurer’s Report
• Committee Reports
• Unfinished Business
• New Business
• Announcements
• Adjourn Business Meeting
• Educational Program, Project Work, or Demonstrations
• Social Time (games and/or refreshments)