OAC meetings and minutes that hold up

The owner-architect-contractor (OAC) meeting is where the project's three parties meet on a fixed rhythm to deal with progress, questions, changes and decisions. The minutes are its memory. Months later, when someone asks who decided what and when, the minutes are often the first record anyone reads. This lesson shows owners how to set up OAC meetings that make decisions, how to write minutes that hold up, and why minutes are never a substitute for the written notices the contract requires.

Learning outcomes

• Distinguish the main construction meetings and say who usually chairs and records each.
• Run an OAC meeting from a standing agenda tied to the project's logs.
• Write minute items that are numbered, assigned, dated and carried forward until closed.
• Explain why a minute is not Notice in Writing under CCDC 2-2020, and what to do when a notice-worthy event comes up in a meeting.

The lesson

Which meeting is which

A building project runs several meetings, and they are easy to blur. The Ontario Association of Architects (OAA) notes that there is no written rule on who chairs and records construction meetings. The contract documents, the client and the meeting type decide it. Its practice article describes a common pattern. The Consultant, as contract administrator, often chairs the pre-construction or kickoff meeting (covered in lesson 3). The contractor chairs and records its own construction and subcontractor meetings, because they deal with means and methods. The project team meeting, which most owners call the OAC meeting, is usually chaired and recorded by the Consultant or the usual chair. Whoever does it, the OAA recommends that one person chairs and another records, and that any contractor duty to organize or minute meetings be written into Division 01.

That last point matters for owners. CCDC 2-2020 says nothing specific about meetings. If the owner wants the contractor to attend fortnightly with its superintendent and key trades, or the Consultant to issue minutes within two days, the specifications and the consultant agreement have to say so.

A standing agenda

An OAC meeting that wanders becomes a status chat. A standing agenda, in the same order every time, keeps it on decisions. The OAA suggests that the previous minutes often serve as the next agenda, which is a good habit: open items stay in front of everyone until they close. The best agendas follow the project's logs, so each section has a document behind it: the schedule update, the RFI log, the submittal register, the change log and the deficiency or NCR log. Each log is circulated before the meeting so time is spent on exceptions, not on reading lists aloud.

View the data

Item	Topic	Minutes	Log behind it
1	Safety	5	Constructor's safety report
2	Previous minutes: corrections, acceptance	5	Draft minutes
3	Schedule and three-week look-ahead	15	Latest Oracle Primavera P6 update
4	RFIs	10	RFI log
5	Submittals	10	Submittal register
6	Changes: proposed changes, Change Directives, Change Orders	15	Change log
7	Quality: hold points, NCRs, tests	10	NCR log
8	Owner decisions required	10	Decision log
9	Payment and administration	5	Payment application status
10	Other business, next meeting	5
	Total	90

Minutes that hold up

Minutes are not a transcript. The OAA's guidance is to record direction, decisions, problems and solutions, and who is responsible for each action. Good practice adds a few rules that make minutes usable later:

• Number every item by meeting and sequence, such as 08.05 for meeting 8, item 5, and keep the number when the item is carried forward.
• One item, one subject, with a cross-reference to the RFI, submittal or change number it concerns.
• Write the outcome, not the conversation. "Ridgeline to issue SI on dock pit depth by June 18" is a minute. "Discussion about the pits" is not.
• Every action has an owner and a date, using company and role, not first names.
• Status words are fixed: new, open, closed. An item closes only when the action is done, and the minute says how.
• Attendance and distribution are listed, so it is clear who knew what.

The OAA recommends distributing minutes within 48 hours, inviting corrections, and recording corrections in the next meeting's minutes. It also advises the Consultant to read every set of minutes, including ones it did not write, and promptly report errors. Owners should do the same. An uncorrected minute that says "owner accepted the substitution" can be hard to walk back.

Minutes are not notice

The most expensive misunderstanding about minutes is that they count as notice. Under CCDC 2-2020, Notice in Writing is a defined term: a written communication between the parties, or with the Consultant, sent in the way Article A-6 of the Agreement sets out. Several clauses require it. GC 6.5 requires the contractor to give written notice of the cause of a delay within 10 Working Days of the delay starting. GC 6.6 requires prompt written notice of intent to claim a change in Contract Price, followed by a detailed account within a reasonable time. Owners also have notice duties, including under the Construction Act's prompt payment rules.

A minute, written by the Consultant and circulated to a list, is not the party's own notice sent to the address in A-6. Canadian courts often enforce notice clauses strictly. In Elite Construction Inc. v. Canada, 2021 ONSC 562, discussed by Miller Thomson, the court rejected a contractor's extension-of-time claim because its notices did not comply with the contract. Contractors and owners argue about whether a minute can ever be enough, and the outcome depends on the clause and the facts. The safe practice is simple: when a notice-worthy event comes up in a meeting, minute it and then send the formal notice.

Northgate worked example

On Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional), Ridgeline Architects Inc. (fictional) chairs and minutes the OAC meetings, which Division 01 sets every second Tuesday from Tuesday March 9, 2027, in Halvorsen's site office. The frequency and start date are illustrative assumptions. Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional) sends its project manager and its owner's representative. Halvorsen Builders Ltd. (fictional) sends its project manager and superintendent, and brings trades when their work is on the agenda. See the Northgate fact sheet.

OAC meeting 8 falls on Tuesday June 15, 2027, ten days before M5 (tilt-up panels erected, Friday June 25). The owner's representative prepares for it the way it prepares for every meeting. On the Monday, it reads Ridgeline's draft agenda against the logs and adds the two oldest RFIs and the joist submittal from lesson 10 by number. It lists the owner decisions due in the next four weeks, such as the dock door colour and the office mezzanine finishes, so the owner's project manager can answer in the room or commit to a date.

Now a hypothetical, for teaching only. Suppose that at OAC 8, Halvorsen's superintendent says a late answer on an RFI has held up one panel casting bed and "we'll be looking for time". Ridgeline minutes it as item 08.09: "Halvorsen advised a possible delay to panel casting at gridline C; Halvorsen to confirm in writing." The owner's representative asks that the minute say exactly that, no more and no less. It does not record agreement that a delay occurred. It notes the date, because if Halvorsen intends to claim, its 10-Working-Day notice period under GC 6.5 runs from when the delay started, whatever the minutes say. And it asks Ridgeline to carry the item forward until Halvorsen's notice arrives or Halvorsen confirms there is no claim.

Two days later, on Thursday June 17, Ridgeline issues the draft minutes, inside the 48-hour target. The owner's representative reads them that afternoon and sends one correction: item 08.06 said the owner "approved" a dock door colour, when the owner's project manager had only expressed a preference pending a sample. The correction is recorded at OAC 9 under item 09.02, "Corrections to minutes of OAC 8".

Owner's move

• Write the meeting rules into Division 01. Frequency, attendees, chair, minute-taker, distribution time and the correction process.
• Run the agenda from the logs. Each agenda section has a log circulated in advance, so the meeting deals with exceptions.
• Read every set of minutes the day they arrive. Correct anything that overstates what the owner agreed, in writing, before the next meeting.
• Keep a decision log. List owner decisions needed, with the date each is needed by, and bring it to every meeting.
• Separate minutes from notices. When a time or price issue comes up, minute it, and make sure the party sends the formal notice.

Common mistakes

1. Minutes as transcripts. Long narrative minutes bury decisions and get read by no one.
2. Actions with no owner or date. They never close and drift from meeting to meeting.
3. Uncorrected errors. A wrong minute left standing for months becomes the accepted record.
4. Treating a minute as notice. Relying on a minute instead of Notice in Writing can cost a party its claim, or its defence.
5. Decisions taken outside the meeting and never recorded. A hallway agreement has no number, no date and no witness.

Quick quiz

1. According to the OAA, who should usually chair and record the contractor's construction meetings with its trades?

   1. The owner
   2. The Consultant
   3. The contractor
   4. The municipality

2. Within what time does the OAA suggest distributing minutes?

   1. 24 hours
   2. 48 hours
   3. 5 Working Days
   4. Before the next meeting

3. A minute says "Halvorsen advised a possible delay." Under CCDC 2-2020, what must Halvorsen still do to preserve a time claim?

   1. Nothing more
   2. Raise it at the next meeting
   3. Give Notice in Writing within 10 Working Days of the delay starting
   4. Wait for the Consultant's finding

4. Where should a correction to the previous meeting's minutes be recorded?

   1. In a private email only
   2. In the next meeting's minutes
   3. In the payment certificate
   4. Nowhere, minutes are final

5. Which minute item is best written?

   1. "Discussion on dock pits."
   2. "Everyone to look at dock pits."
   3. "08.05 RFI-047: Ridgeline to issue SI on dock pit depth by Fri Jun 18. Open."
   4. "Pits: see previous."

Show answers and explanations

1. C. The OAA notes construction meetings deal with means and methods, so the contractor usually chairs and records them.
2. B. The OAA suggests distribution preferably within 48 hours.
3. C. GC 6.5 requires written notice of the cause of a delay within 10 Working Days after it starts. A minute is not a substitute.
4. B. The OAA recommends inviting corrections and recording them in the subsequent meeting's minutes.
5. C. It has a number, a reference, a named action, a date and a status.

Key terms

OAC meeting

The regular owner-architect-contractor project meeting on progress, questions, changes and decisions.

Standing agenda

A fixed order of agenda items used at every meeting, tied to the project logs.

Action item

A numbered task in the minutes with a responsible party, a due date and a status.

Carried forward

An open item repeated in each set of minutes, with its original number, until it closes.

Decision log

The owner's list of decisions needed, by date, and the decisions made.

Notice in Writing

A CCDC 2-2020 defined term: a written communication sent as Article A-6 requires.

References

1. Ontario Association of Architects, Construction meetings: minutes (2015, updated June 2020).
2. Canadian Construction Documents Committee, CCDC 2-2020 Stipulated Price Contract, Definitions, Article A-6, GC 6.5 and 6.6 (paraphrased).
3. Miller Thomson LLP, Compliance with notice requirements critical in construction contracts with government owners.
4. Ontario Association of Architects, PT.23.11 Overview of the changes in CCDC 2-2020 (May 23, 2024).
5. Ontario Association of Architects, Canadian Handbook of Practice excerpt: requests for information.

Verified on November 6, 2026.

Next lesson in this trackMonthly progress reports owners can trust