What Is an OAC Meeting?
By Wyatt Cooper · Published · 3 min read
Key takeaways
- OAC stands for owner, architect, contractor: the three parties who meet on a regular cycle, often weekly, while the job is built.
- The agenda follows the open items: schedule, RFIs, submittals, change orders, payment, safety, then old and new business.
- Its minutes matter more than the meeting: each decision becomes an action item with a responsible person and a due date, carried until it closes.
An OAC meeting is a regular project meeting of the owner, the architect and the contractor, often weekly during construction. It reviews progress against the schedule, open RFIs, submittals, change orders, payment and safety, and every decision becomes an action item with a responsible person and a due date in the minutes.
What an OAC meeting covers
Public owners write the agenda down. The City of Los Angeles's weekly construction progress meeting covers the contractor's three-week progress schedule, record drawings, change orders, submittals, RFIs and plan clarifications, the construction schedule, housekeeping and safety, then old and new business, and for each outstanding item the construction manager, who presides, "should establish the responsible party and a time limit" (LA Bureau of Engineering, 16.6). Federal schedule specifications have the parties "jointly review the actual progress of the project as compared to the planned progress" each week and review upcoming work "via a three week lookahead" (UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, 3.7).
On private work the general contractor often runs the meeting and writes the minutes; on many public jobs the owner's construction manager does. Either way, the three-week look-ahead, the RFI log and the change order log are the working papers.
Example
OAC Meeting #12, item 12.04
- Topic
- RFI-014, grease interceptor size, open 9 days
- Discussion
- Engineer confirmed 1,000 gallons governs; GC to price the deeper excavation
- Action
- GC to send the change order pricing to the owner
- Responsible
- GC project manager
- Due
- Before OAC Meeting #13
- Status
- New; carried from #12 until closed
OAC meeting vs. other project meetings
| Meeting | Who attends | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Preconstruction meeting | Owner, design team, GC, major subs | Roles, procedures and lines of communication before work starts |
| OAC meeting | Owner, architect, GC (subs as needed) | Progress, decisions and open items with the owner and designer |
| Subcontractor coordination meeting | GC and its subs | Sequencing, manpower and trade conflicts for the coming weeks |
How it works in Conflo
In Conflo's meetings, OAC meetings form a numbered series (OAC Meeting #1, #2, #3). You take attendance, write the minutes and assign action items with a due date; open items carry forward to the next meeting in the series, and minutes and attendance lock once you mark them distributed.
The bottom line
An OAC meeting is where the owner, the designer and the builder settle open items every week or two.
Run it from the logs, write every decision as an action with a name and a date, and carry it until it closes.
Sources
- 16.6 Meetings — City of Los Angeles, Bureau of Engineering, Project Delivery Manual. Read October 22, 2026.
- UFGS 01 32 01.00 10, Project Schedule (August 2026) — Whole Building Design Guide (USACE / NAVFAC / AFCEC). Read October 22, 2026.
Questions
What does OAC stand for?
Owner, architect, contractor. Some teams call it the owner-architect-contractor meeting, the weekly progress meeting or the construction progress meeting.
How often are OAC meetings held?
The contract or the team decides; weekly or every two weeks during construction is common, with the cadence set at the preconstruction meeting.
Who writes the OAC meeting minutes?
Whoever runs the meeting, often the general contractor's project manager on private work, and distributes them to every attendee.
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