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Advisory board meeting

Advisory board meeting agenda template

An advisory board meeting agenda should spend most of its time on one or two decisions the company hasn't made yet, not on status updates. Open with what you did with the advice from last time, keep the company update short and send it ahead, then work through the questions, ask for introductions and close with follow-ups. An advisory board doesn't vote or bind the company, so the notes record advice and what the owner will do with it rather than motions.

Best forStartups, small businesses and nonprofits with an informal advisory board

Meeting length90 minutes to 2 hours, usually quarterly

SectionsLast meeting's advice, company update, questions for advice, introductions, follow-ups

MinutesNot formal minutes. Advisors don't vote, so notes are enough

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

Word Markdown

Advisory board meeting agenda.docx

Advisory board meeting agenda

Date and time Location or video link Sent aheadCompany update and the questions for adviceNotes by

Item	Owner	Time	What we need to leave with
Welcome and what changed since last meeting	Owner or CEO	10 min	Advisors up to speed on anything not in the update
What we did with last meeting's advice	Owner or CEO	10 min	Advisors know which advice was used and what happened
Question 1:	Owner or CEO	35 min	Each advisor's view and the biggest risk they see
Question 2:	Owner or CEO	25 min	Each advisor's view, or a decision to come back to
Asks: introductions, hires, customers, partners	Owner or CEO	15 min	Each intro has an advisor and a date
What are we not seeing?	Chair or owner	10 min	Anything for the next agenda
Follow-ups and next meeting	Notes taker	5 min	One owner and a date for each follow-up

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Word Markdown

[Company] advisory board meeting notes.docx

[Company] advisory board meeting notes

Date Advisors present From the company Notes by

What we did with last meeting's advice

Advice	From	What we did	Result so far

Company update

What changed since last meeting, numbers that moved

Advice given

Question	Advisor	What they said
		Close to their own words

What we'll do with it

Question: next step or decision, who decides, by when

Introductions offered

Introduction to	Offered by	Why	By when

Follow-ups

Item	Owner	Due

Next meeting

Date, time, location, question for next time

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Copperleaf Bakery advisory board notes, Q4

Filled-in example

Copperleaf Bakery advisory board notes, Q4

DateWednesday, November 4, 2026, 4:00 to 6:00 pmAdvisors presentLinda Haas (retired grocery buyer), Kwame Mensah (CPA), Frank Delucci (restaurant group operator). Absent: Joy NakamuraFrom the companyElena Vasquez (owner), Ben Torres (operations manager)Notes byBen Torres

What we did with last meeting's advice

Advice	From	What we did	Result so far
Raise custom cake prices	Frank	Raised them 8% on September 1	Orders held steady: 41 in September, 43 in October
Talk to a co-packer before building a wholesale kitchen	Linda	Visited Riverbend Food Partners on October 14	Quote promised by November 13. Needs confirming
Have a commercial lender look at our numbers	Kwame	Not done	Elena ran out of time. Kwame offered an intro today

Company update

Three shops, October sales $118,000, up 6% on last October.
Labor is 34% of sales, up from 31%, after two bakers left in September.
Two independent grocers asked about carrying our sourdough.

Advice given

Question	Advisor	What they said
Should we sell to grocery stores in 2027, and if so, independents or a chain?	Linda	Start with two independents, not a chain. Chains will want promotional discounts and pay in 30 days or more. Ask for a 90-day trial with a clear reorder count.
Same	Kwame	On today's costs a wholesale loaf makes about 18% gross margin against 62% in the shops. Build a 90-day cash forecast before saying yes to anyone.
Same	Frank	Disagrees with Linda on timing. Fix the baker shortage first, because wholesale will take the bakers the shops need.
Promote Ben to general manager, or hire from outside?	Frank and Kwame	Split. Frank says promote Ben and hire a new operations lead under him. Kwame says it depends on whether Elena wants to step back from daily work in 2027, which she hasn't decided.

What we'll do with it

Grocery wholesale: Elena decides by January 15, after the co-packer quote and Kwame's cash forecast template are in.
General manager: not decided. Elena will think about her own role first and bring it back in February.

Introductions offered

Introduction to	Offered by	Why	By when
Buyer at Harvest Lane Market	Linda	Trial for sourdough at an independent grocer	Nov 11
Commercial lender at Fairmount Savings	Kwame	Line of credit before any wholesale buildout	Nov 18
Head of hiring at Frank's restaurant group	Frank	Where they find bakers	Not set, Frank said "after Thanksgiving"

Follow-ups

Item	Owner	Due
Chase the Riverbend co-packer quote	Ben Torres	Nov 13
Send Elena a 90-day cash forecast template	Kwame Mensah	Nov 11
Fill in the forecast with grocery scenarios	Elena Vasquez	Dec 11
Send Joy these notes and ask for her view on the grocery question	Ben Torres	Nov 6

Next meeting

Wednesday, February 3, 2027, 4:00 pm, Copperleaf main shop. Question for next time: general manager.

Copperleaf Bakery, Riverbend Food Partners, Harvest Lane Market, Fairmount Savings and all the people named are a fictional sample.

Best forStartups, small businesses and nonprofits with an informal advisory board

Meeting length90 minutes to 2 hours, usually quarterly

SectionsLast meeting's advice, company update, questions for advice, introductions, follow-ups

MinutesNot formal minutes. Advisors don't vote, so notes are enough

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

What to write in each section

What we did with last meeting's advice

Start here. For each piece of advice, say what you did and what happened, including the advice you decided not to take and why. It's the main reason advisors stay engaged.

Company update

One or two pages sent two or three days ahead. In the room, take five minutes on what changed and which numbers moved.

Questions for advice

One or two real decisions you're facing, each framed as a question with the options you're weighing. Send the question with the update so advisors can think about it first. There's more on framing items as questions in how to write a meeting agenda.

"Should we sell to grocery stores in 2027, and if so, independents or a chain?" gets specific answers. "Thoughts on growth?" gets speeches.

Advice given and what we'll do with it

Note who said what, close to their words. Record disagreement, because the split is often the most useful part. Then write what the owner will do next and by when. Advisors advise, the owner decides.

Introductions offered

Every intro an advisor offers, to whom, for what, and by when. These are the follow-ups that most often get lost.

When to use this template

Your advisors meet every quarter, say useful things, and three months later nobody remembers what they were.
The meeting has turned into a long slide update and the advisors barely talk.
You want advisors to see what happened with their advice so they keep showing up.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between an advisory board and a board of directors?: A board of directors has legal authority and duties: it votes on resolutions and oversees management. An advisory board has neither. Its members give advice, and the owner or the real board decides what to do with it. That's why an advisory board meeting needs notes rather than formal board minutes with motions.
How often should an advisory board meet?: Quarterly works for most small companies. It's frequent enough that advisors remember the context and rare enough that each meeting has new decisions to talk about. Between meetings, contact individual advisors when a question falls in their area.
Should advisors get the notes after the meeting?: Yes, within a few days, as a short meeting recap, along with the follow-ups that are theirs, such as introductions. Send them to any advisor who missed the meeting too, with the question you most want their view on.

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