Council Operating Pack

Used in PART 2 · PRIORITISATION COUNCIL

A glimpse inside

Preview of the four Council Operating Pack documents — structure shown, detail deliberately softened

4 Word documents, ready to complete. Terms of Reference (purpose and scope, objectives and role, chair, secretary and membership, meetings, decision-making and the value model, decision rights and escalation, relationship to Optimize10, review of the terms) · Agenda template (meeting details, an eight-item standing agenda with timings, pre-meeting checklist) · Minutes template (meeting details, attendance, record of discussion and decisions, actions carried forward, distribution and retention) · Decision Log template (the running log with weighted benefit, complexity, net priority, decision, sponsor and review date; using the log at each meeting; review and retention). Every organisation-specific field is bracketed for you to fill in.

In a sentence — the four ready-to-complete documents that turn the Prioritisation Council from an idea into a forum that actually meets: Terms of Reference, Agenda, Minutes and a running Decision Log.

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What this pack does

A Terms of Reference tells you what the Prioritisation Council is meant to do. It doesn't tell you what goes on Tuesday's agenda, how to write up what was decided, or where last quarter's decisions live when someone asks why an initiative was deprioritised six months ago. This pack is the rest of it.

The four documents are designed to be used together. The Terms of Reference sets the constitution: mandate, membership, cadence, decision rights and escalation. The Agenda Template gives every meeting the same disciplined structure. The Minutes Template captures what was decided and why — not a transcript of the debate. The Decision Log keeps a single running record of every initiative's Net priority and sequencing outcome, meeting after meeting.

WHY A PACK, NOT JUST A CONSTITUTION

Most governance failures aren't caused by a missing charter — they're caused by a Council that meets without a fixed structure, produces minutes nobody can act on, and has no single place to see what was decided last time. The templates exist to remove those failure points, not to add process for its own sake.

WORKS WITH THE PRIORITISATION MATRIX

This pack is the operating layer around the Prioritisation Matrix (PM). PM produces the Net priority score for each initiative; the Council Operating Pack is where that score actually gets discussed, decided and recorded.

What's included

Prioritisation Council — Terms of Reference

The constitution: purpose, objectives, chair and membership, meeting mechanics, the value-model principles behind every decision, and what the Council may decide on its own and what it escalates.

Council Agenda Template

The standing eight-item meeting structure, timings and a pre-meeting checklist for the Secretary.

Council Minutes Template

A structured format for recording decisions and their basis — attendance, discussion summary, decision, action owner and due date.

Council Decision Log Template

The single running record of every prioritisation decision — Net priority, decision, sponsor and next review date, meeting after meeting.

How it's used

The four documents in order:

Using the pack

1Start with the Terms of Reference to define chair, membership, cadence, quorum and decision rights for your organisation.

2Use the Agenda Template to structure every meeting — the same eight items, every time.

3Complete the Minutes Template during or immediately after each meeting.

4Update the Decision Log from the approved minutes, so the running record of every initiative stays current.

Four templates, one discipline: the same Council, run the same way, every time.