Guides
What Is an OAC Meeting? Agenda and Minutes
What an OAC (owner-architect-contractor) meeting is, who runs it, a standard agenda, how to write the minutes, and how action items carry forward.
An OAC meeting is the regular progress meeting between the owner, the architect and the contractor during construction. It is where the three parties to the project review the schedule, open questions, submittals and changes, and agree who does what before the next meeting.
On most projects OAC meetings happen every week or every two weeks, from the start of construction to substantial completion. This guide covers who attends, who runs the meeting, a standard agenda, how to write useful minutes, and how to keep action items from going in circles.
What OAC stands for
OAC stands for owner-architect-contractor. Some teams say "OAC meeting", others "progress meeting", "construction progress meeting" or "job meeting". They mean the same thing: the recurring meeting where the owner, the design team and the builder sit at one table.
It is different from the contractor's own coordination meetings with its subcontractors, which the architect usually doesn't attend, and from the one-time pre-construction meeting at the start of the job (more on that below).
Who attends
- The owner's representative, who can make decisions or get them made quickly.
- The architect: usually the project architect or CA manager, sometimes the principal on key meetings.
- The contractor's project manager and superintendent.
- Consultants and subcontractors when their work is on the agenda: structural, MEP, civil, a major trade at a critical stage.
- Others as needed: the owner's testing agency, commissioning agent, or the end users' facilities staff.
Keep the regular attendance small enough to make decisions. Invite specialists for the agenda items that need them.
Who runs the meeting and writes the minutes
It depends on the contract. The specifications usually say who conducts progress meetings and who records them, typically in Division 01 (in MasterFormat, the Project Meetings section, 01 31 19). On some projects the contractor runs the meeting and issues the minutes. On many smaller projects the architect does.
Read that section before the first meeting. Whoever writes the minutes controls the first draft of the project's history, so if the architect isn't writing them, the architect should still review them closely.
A standard OAC meeting agenda
A consistent agenda makes meetings shorter, because everyone knows what will be asked. A typical order:
- Opening. Attendance, then review and approval of the previous meeting's minutes, with any corrections noted.
- Schedule. Progress since the last meeting, whether the job is on time, ahead or behind, revisions to the schedule, and the work planned for the next period.
- Site and coordination. Upcoming deliveries and off-site fabrication, access and site use, temporary facilities, coordination between trades, and cleaning.
- Quality. Field observations since the last meeting, and the status of deficient work identified in field reports.
- Documents. Open RFIs (especially overdue ones) and submittals in review or due for resubmittal.
- Changes. Proposal requests awaiting a price or a decision, construction change directives not yet settled, change orders pending signature, and any claims.
- Payment. Status of the current application for payment and any documentation still missing.
- Action items. Open items carried forward from earlier meetings, and new items from this one, each with a responsible party and a due date.
- Next meeting. Date, time and location.
Sections 5 and 6 are where architects lose the most time when the logs live in separate spreadsheets. Bring the current RFI log, submittal log and change status to every meeting instead of rebuilding them from email.
How to write OAC meeting minutes
Good minutes record decisions and commitments, not a transcript. For each topic, write down what was decided, who will act, and by when.
- Number every item and keep the numbering across meetings (for example, 4.03 stays 4.03 until it closes). Readers can then follow one issue through months of minutes.
- Name a responsible party and a date for every action item. "Contractor to confirm" is not an action item. "Contractor to confirm the storefront delivery date by 11/18" is.
- Carry open items forward until they close, then record when and how they closed.
- Distribute quickly. Within a few days of the meeting, while memories are fresh. Many specifications set a deadline.
- Ask for corrections at the next meeting, and record them in those minutes. Silence is usually taken as agreement.
Minutes don't change the contract
Minutes record what was discussed. They don't change the contract sum, the contract time or the scope. When a meeting decides on a change, the minutes should say which document will carry it (an ASI, a proposal request, a construction change directive or a change order) and the action item should track that document until it is issued.
Write the architect's statements with care. "Architect agreed the substitution is acceptable" in the minutes can be read later as an approval that never went through the submittal process.
OAC meeting vs pre-construction meeting
| Pre-construction meeting | OAC meeting | |
|---|---|---|
| When | Once, before work starts | Regularly, through construction |
| Purpose | Set up the procedures and the people | Review progress and resolve open items |
| Typical topics | Key personnel, lines of communication, procedures for RFIs, submittals, changes and payment, site rules, working hours, the owner's occupancy | Schedule, coordination, quality, RFIs, submittals, changes, payment, action items |
| Attendance | Often wider, including major subcontractors | The core team plus whoever the agenda needs |
The pre-construction meeting decides how the project will run. The OAC meetings check that it is running that way.
Common mistakes
- No fixed agenda. Meetings drift, and the same topics get missed every time.
- Action items without owners or dates. They come back unchanged at every meeting.
- Late minutes. Two weeks later, nobody remembers what was agreed, and the corrections turn into arguments.
- Treating the minutes as approval. Changes and substitutions still need their own documents.
- Rebuilding the logs for every meeting. Copying RFI and submittal status into the agenda by hand is slow and goes stale the moment it's done.
Frequently asked questions
What does OAC mean in construction?
Owner-architect-contractor. An OAC meeting is the regular progress meeting between the three parties to the construction contract.
How often are OAC meetings held?
Usually weekly or every two weeks during construction, sometimes monthly on long projects or during slow phases. The specifications often set the frequency.
Who takes the minutes at an OAC meeting?
Whoever the contract says. It is often in Division 01 of the specifications. On some projects it's the contractor, on many smaller projects the architect.
Are OAC meeting minutes legally binding?
Minutes are a record of what was discussed and agreed, and they can carry weight in a dispute, which is why corrections matter. They don't replace the contract documents: changes to cost, time or scope still need an ASI, proposal request, CCD or change order.
Running OAC meetings in Agradium
In Agradium, an OAC meeting takes its attendees from the project directory, and the minutes pull in the current status of RFIs, submittals and change orders, open items from field reports, and the field reports issued since the last meeting. Open action items carry forward to the next meeting until they're closed, and the minutes are issued as a PDF in your letterhead. If you'd like to see it on a project, request a demo.
MasterFormat section numbers are cited to identify them. This is general information, not legal advice; your contract governs.