Consultant team start-up meeting
A consultant team start-up meeting should be held when members of the consultant team are appointed, before they begin work. It should be chaired by the client and attended by the consultant team. It is possible that consultants will not all be appointed at the same time, so it may be necessary to hold more than one start-up meeting.
The start-up meeting is an opportunity to:
- Introduce the parties to be involved, explain responsibilities and exchange contact details.
- Describe the organisational structure that will be adopted.
- Issue and discuss site information.
- Issue and discuss the preliminary business case (if appropriate).
- Issue and discuss the strategic brief.
- Issue and discuss the project execution plan.
- Agree working methods such as; methods of communication, means for reporting, approvals and decision making processes (consultants can sometimes programme client decisions into their work without first establishing that the programme suits the client), drawing protocols and standards, collaborative practices, document control strategies and so on.
- Discuss procurement options and tendering restrictions (such as OJEU procurement rules).
- Discuss CDM and other legislative obligations.
- Identify any additional members of the consultant team, specialist designers, specialist contractors or independent client advisers who should be appointed.
- Discuss the programme.
- Identify immediate tasks to be undertaken.
- Agree meeting schedules.
- Discuss the application of VAT.
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