The Committee
Brief Template
Two blank layouts for the hour before the meeting. One page that says what changed, what still needs a decision and what to ask, with a source reference on every line. Plus the sheet that carries the decisions back into your normal minutes.
Free to read, print and edit. No signup, no gate, no email required.
Meeting brief
The one-page layout you fill in before the committee sits: the decision needed, what changed, three questions for the room, the next step, and the sources.
Decisions and follow-up
The handover after it sits: decisions and their conditions, the actions for your normal record with owners and a due basis, and a follow-up message you review before sending.
Both files are blank. Both are also reproduced in full further down this page, so you can read them before you download anything.
What this is
Two blank layouts with the guidance printed inside every field, so the page tells you what belongs in it. Nothing to install. They open in Word and they work on paper. Your existing format is equally suitable, and if you already have one, take the four rules below and leave the layout alone.
What this is not
The preparation itself. A blank layout does not read your pack, does not find what changed since the last approval, and does not decide anything. It is also not an approved decision record, and both files say so on their own first line.
Four actions are complete. The award is still on hold.
That sentence is the whole problem, and your pack will not write it for you. A pack is an accumulation. It is organised by who submitted what, and each contributor honestly reports their own progress. Nobody owns the sentence that compares the progress to the condition the committee actually set.
A brief is a comparison. It puts this approval next to that condition and states whether the gap closed. Same documents, different question. It takes an hour and it is the hour nobody schedules.
The awkward part is the source reference. It is what makes a brief safe to bring into a room where people can act on it, and it is also what makes it slow to write. Everything below exists to make that part mechanical.
Four rules that make the layout work
These are printed inside the templates, in the fields they govern. They are here too because they matter more than the layout does. Apply them to whatever format you already use and you get most of the benefit without downloading anything.
It is a draft until somebody approves it
The banner at the top of both layouts is not decoration. A brief written the night before is preparation, not a record. Label it, and nobody in the room can mistake your summary for the minutes.
A source reference on every consequential line
Document title, date or version, and the page or section. Every amount, every date, every condition, every status. A brief without references is an opinion in a committee’s handwriting, and the first person who checks one number will stop trusting the rest.
Separate a recommendation from an approved authority
What somebody proposes and what the committee already authorised are different categories. When the brief blurs them, the room approves something twice or nothing at all. Both layouts keep them in separate fields for that reason.
Name what you could not check
Unresolved evidence is a field, not a failure. The document you could not open, the approval you could not find, the number that has no source yet. Writing it down is what lets the room decide whether to proceed anyway.
Meeting brief
One page, written before the committee sits. The square brackets are the guidance that ships inside the file.
MEETING BRIEF [ BLANK TEMPLATE ] Meeting / date / timezone | Evidence through / prepared by [Meeting and local date] | [Cutoff, sources and preparation owner] DECISION OR ATTENTION NEEDED [State the choice or attention point. Separate any recommendation from approved authority. Add source references.] WHAT CHANGED [List the material changes from a supported prior approval, or label this a current-packet review when earlier approval is unavailable.] QUESTIONS FOR THE ROOM 1. [Question that could change the decision] 2. [Question about a consequential gap] 3. [Question about authority or next action] NEXT STEP AND UNRESOLVED EVIDENCE [Who should provide what, by when? Label new owners and deadlines as proposals. State inaccessible or missing evidence.] SOURCES [Document title, date or version, and the useful page or section, for each consequential amount, date, condition and status.] DRAFT FOR REVIEW. This is not an approved decision record.
Three questions, not ten. One that could change the decision, one about a gap that matters, one about authority or the next action. A room can hold three.
Decisions and follow-up
The handover into whatever minutes and action process you already run. It does not replace them, and it does not send anything.
DECISIONS AND FOLLOW-UP [ BLANK TEMPLATE ]
Meeting / date | Source status
[Meeting and local date] | [Approved minutes or unconfirmed notes,
| with the source locator]
DECISIONS AND CONDITIONS
[Record only supported decisions. Distinguish conditions retained,
changed and not resolved. Name uncertainty if the minutes are
unapproved.]
ACTIONS FOR THE NORMAL RECORD
Owner | Deliverable | Due / basis
[Source-assigned role] | [Specific supported item] | [Date + source]
[Source-assigned role] | [Specific supported item] | [Date + source]
FOLLOW-UP MESSAGE DRAFT
[Owner], the [approved record and date] requests [deliverable] by
[due date]. Please provide [evidence or clarification], or identify
what remains unresolved. [Preserve any condition that still applies.]
REVIEW BEFORE USE
Confirm the decision status, owner and date against the source. Keep
unresolved points visible. Review the message before sending, and use
the organisation's established official record.
DRAFT FOR REVIEW. Using this layout does not approve minutes or send
messages.The due-basis column is the one people skip. A date with no source is a date somebody invented in the room, and it is the first thing that slips.
The layouts are free. The hour is the hard part.
Two blank pages do not tell you how to get from a hundred-page pack, a set of minutes and an action list to the one page above, with a reference behind every claim, before the meeting starts. That method is what ExCom Office is.
It is a written method, a fully worked case with the four fictional source documents it was built from so you can check every line against them, executive, assistant and self-use guides, and these same two templates. Thirty-five files, one committee, one payment.
See what is in ExCom OfficeOr go straight to the checkout, $149 once. No subscription and no refresh commitment.
You do not need it to use these templates. That is why they are published on their own.
The next thing your committee asks for will involve AI
AI at Work goes out every other Tuesday: what changed, what it costs, and what to do about it. No vendor sponsorship.
Where to next, for you
Three picks that follow from this page.
Free next step
Microsoft Scout (Frontier)
The first always-on Autopilot, and what IT and risk owners must decide before enabling it.
Follows on from this page.
GoPaid option · $149
ExCom Office
Walk into the committee knowing what changed, what still needs approval and what to challenge.
Follows on from this page.
GoWorth a read
Shadow AI is not a discipline problem
Why people route around the sanctioned tool, and what to do instead of banning it.
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GoPicked from the pages you open here; that record stays in your browser and is never sent to us. .
Kesslernity. Independent practitioner, no vendor sponsorship. These files are blank layouts. Filling one in does not approve a decision, confirm minutes or send a message, and your organisation’s established official record still governs. The worked case inside ExCom Office is authored fiction, labelled as such: it is not a customer case and not an observed result from any AI product. This is meeting-preparation guidance, not legal, accounting or governance advice.