What does AOB mean in meeting minutes?

AOB, or "any other business", appears on nearly every board agenda. When it becomes overloaded with unprepared topics, it's a red flag that your board is firefighting rather than leading. It also means important items risk being discussed without the pre-reading or context directors need to make good decisions. Here's how to reclaim valuable meeting time and focus on what drives real progress.

• More than half of boards spend the majority of board meeting time on backward-looking agenda items. Heavy use of AOB in the agenda makes it even harder for boards to prioritise forward-looking discussions.
• AOB should be limited to urgent items that emerged after the agenda was set.
• The biggest barriers to board decision-making are rigid processes, unclear roles, and poor information. AOB compounds all three.
• Modern board technology helps plan agendas more effectively and keeps meetings focused on strategic priorities.

Any other business, or AOB, appears at the end of most board meeting agendas. It is meant to capture urgent matters or minor updates that couldn't be planned in advance.

In practice, it rarely works that way. Our Board Value Index found that less than half of boards balance their time appropriately between forward-looking topics and backward-looking performance review. When AOB becomes bloated with unprepared topics, it compounds this problem. It takes up time that could otherwise be spent on strategic topics, forces discussions and decisions to be rushed, and makes meetings run longer than they need to.

Heavy AOB use is a warning sign that your board is reacting rather than leading. Important topics are being squeezed into the margins instead of getting the attention they deserve. Directors are left making decisions without proper preparation or context.

The solution starts with better agenda planning — making sure the right topics get the time and preparation they deserve, so AOB doesn't become a catch-all for everything that wasn't planned for.

In meeting minutes, AOB records topics that weren't included in the main agenda. This creates a formal record of any decisions, follow-ups, or action points raised spontaneously.

True AOB should be limited to genuinely urgent matters that emerged after the agenda was finalised, quick administrative updates, or brief acknowledgements. Anything that needs a decision, pre-reading, or follow-up belongs on the main agenda.

The problem is that AOB rarely stays within these bounds. As Megan Pantelides, Senior Director of Brand and Content at Board Intelligence, points out, "AOB often becomes a dumping ground for topics that haven't been properly planned. It ends up using valuable meeting time without enough preparation."

This matters because it affects decision-making quality and velocity. Our Board Value Index found that rigid or inconsistent decision-making processes are among the top barriers to effective board decision-making, alongside unclear roles, poor time management, and inadequate information. When important topics end up in AOB, directors are making decisions at the worst possible time: without proper papers and without time to think. The outcome is either a poor decision or no decision, if directors ask for it to be tabled again at a future meeting, and neither outcome is ideal.

When recording AOB in the minutes, capture what was discussed, who raised it, any decisions made, and who owns the follow-up. Ensure the minutes are clear enough that directors who missed the meeting can understand what happened and what's expected next.

If substantive items keep appearing under AOB, your agenda planning process needs attention. Better agenda planning means fewer surprises at the end of meetings and more time for the discussions that matter.

AOB is misused when it's used as a place for topics that should have been discussed and planned for properly within the main board meeting agenda. This shows up in three ways:

• Unprepared discussions: Agenda items that should have been scheduled weeks ago surface under AOB. Directors are forced into rushed discussions without adequate information.
• Strategic topics squeezed in: Significant decisions are introduced under AOB because they weren't planned for. Decisions are rushed or made without the appropriate briefings.
• Regular substantive items: When AOB consistently contains topics that require board decisions, follow-up, or strategic discussion, it signals the board isn't planning effectively or prioritising what matters most.

Heavy reliance on AOB for these types of topics erodes decision-making quality across the whole meeting, not just the AOB section.

The best way to manage AOB is to prevent most items from landing there in the first place. This means establishing clear criteria for what qualifies and giving your chair the tools to enforce them.

When AOB items do arise, record them with the same discipline you'd apply to prepared agenda items:

• Focus on decisions, action items, and next steps rather than transcribing the entire discussion.
• Note who raised each AOB item to ensure accountability and make follow-ups straightforward.
• Summarise outcomes clearly and concisely, avoiding verbatim notes. Note who is responsible for each follow-up action and when it is due.

Review the AOB section before finalising to confirm it matches what was agreed and makes sense to anyone reading it later.

Tools like Board Intelligence's Agenda Planner help structure meetings around priorities from the start, while our AI meeting minutes writer ensures consistent recording standards across all agenda items, including AOB.

The goal isn't to eliminate AOB. It's to need it less. That means building agendas that accommodate unexpected items without pushing important topics to the end of the meeting or rushing them to make time for AOB.

Consider the following strategies to ensure the board meeting remains productive:

• Distribute board papers in advance: Board members who have reviewed the materials before the meeting are equipped to provide constructive challenge and engage in forward-looking, strategic discussion rather than simply absorbing information.
• Structure your agenda with time allocations: Include estimated timeframes for each item and set clear objectives for what the meeting needs to achieve. This creates natural discipline and makes it obvious when discussions are overrunning.
• Invest in board technology: Use the Board Intelligence board portal and Agenda Planner to structure your meetings and Report Writer to align papers with priorities. By using the right tools, you'll ensure that important issues are addressed properly, leaving very little that needs to be raised last-minute under AOB.
• Engage with experts: Board Intelligence offers agenda planning advisory services, supported by the Six Conversations Model, to help boards focus their time on strategic, high-value discussions rather than operational detail.
• Use consent agendas: Group routine items like previous meeting minutes, standard reports, and recurring approvals into a single vote. Directors can still pull out any item for discussion if needed, but uncontroversial matters get approved quickly, freeing up time for strategic topics.
• Regularly review your patterns: Continuously assess where the board has been spending its time. If the same types of issues keep appearing under AOB, adjust how you plan agendas going forward.

Board chairs can manage AOB by setting clear guidelines on which topics belong there and requiring advance notice where possible. Board management software complements this by helping to structure agendas more effectively and enabling some discussions to take place asynchronously.