I am on the committee for my local agility club and our AGM is coming up. Currently it is in our constitution that the agenda for the AGM is only available to view at the meeting and I want to propose that we change it so that it is made available to members beforehand. Can anyone who is involved with any club committees tell me what they would regard as usual? I can't see a reason for the current rule but wondered if it was a standard way of doing things?

thanks

I'm with you, if people know what the agenda is they are more able to prepare any questions they may wish to ask and any points they wish to clarify.  That said changes to the constitution are usually put forward by the committee to the membership and if passed it has to be approved by the KC as it is a change to the constitution so it is not a quick fix - I would put it on the next agenda to ask the committee to discuss it with a view of changing it at the next AGM.

thanks for the quick response! It is a bit easier than that for us actually as we are not a KC reg club, it is in our constitution however that we can only alter the constitution at an AGM, so I think if I put it on the agenda this year we can decide right away. (I'm the Chair so pretty sure of it anyhow!)
I think it makes it fairer as although technically the agenda is known by the secretary beforehand it is fairly informal and the committee will usually know already if there is anything of note happening. I also dislike that it gives us the opportunity by being devious to blindside the members and push though something that we want as without for warning AGMS are pretty poorly attended. (this has happened!)

I am on the committee of a KC registered agility club. We email the agenda and minutes of the last meeting to committee members about two weeks before the next meeting. It means everyone knows what is on the agenda and also gives you time to read the minutes at leisure and not have to spend ages at the meeting waiting for everyone to read them. It's also useful if you spot something that needs to be amended/discussed further as you have time to think about it in advance.

We adopted this method about 3 years ago and it works really well.

> We email the agenda and minutes of the last meeting to committee members about two weeks before

Yes - common practice. I've never heard of an organisation where the agenda is only available at the meeting - very odd. Who decides what is on the agenda ?? There should be some rules for that too. The agenda shouldn't be decided only by the committee. There should be some means where members can put forward the items they want discussed and a transparent method of deciding which of these will be on the agenda :)