Minute taking what is

What Are Meeting Minutes? The five steps that you must include are: Pre-Planning Record taking - at the meeting Minutes writing or transcribing Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes Filing or storage of minutes for future reference For more detail on each step, read on! Or if you're just looking for a list of meeting minutes templates, check out this post.

What Is the Purpose of Meeting Minutes? But it is important to capture the essence of the meeting, including details such as: decisions made motions made, votes, etc. As mentioned above, there are essentially five steps involved with meeting minutes: Pre-Planning Record taking - at the meeting Minutes writing or transcribing Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes Filing or storage of minutes for future reference.

Pre-Planning Meeting Minutes: A well-planned meeting helps ensure effective meeting minutes. What Is the Agenda of a Meeting? Motions taken or rejected Items to be held over New business Next meeting date and time You can find more templates and details on formatting meeting minutes here.

Tips that might help your note taking: Create an outline — as discussed earlier, having an outline or template based on the agenda makes it easy for you to simply jot down notes, decisions, etc. If you are taking notes by hand, consider including space below each item on your outline for your hand-written notes, then print these out and use this to capture minutes.

Check-off attendees as they enter the room - if you know the meeting attendees, you can check them off as they arrive, if not have folks introduce themselves at the start of the meeting or circulate an attendance list they can check-off themselves. Record it — literally, if you are concerned about being able to keep up with note taking, consider recording the meeting e.

Meeting Minutes Template: Here's a simple template you can refer to next time you need to take meeting minutes. Meeting Minutes Sample: Still wondering if you're taking notes correctly? Here are some tips that might help: Try to write the minutes as soon after the meeting as possible while everything is fresh in your mind. Review your outline and if necessary, add additional notes or clarify points raised. Also check to ensure all decisions, actions and motions are clearly noted.

Avoid personal observations — the minutes should be solely fact-based If you need to refer to other documents, don't try to summarize them. Rather, simply indicate where they can be found or attach them as an appendix.

Online sharing The method of sharing or distribution will depend on the tools that you and your organization use. Sharing in the Cloud? Tools Specifically For Meeting Minutes: If you are wondering about the types of tools you might use specifically for meeting minutes, here are some tools that organizations we've worked with have found helpful: Google Docs: Also supports collaborative note taking.

If you send out a meeting request using Google Calendar, you can attach a Google doc agenda outline. Once minutes are crafted using the outline , you can simply share the document with the group using their email addresses.

Also support audio recording with corresponding note time-stamping. Lucid Meetings: Fantastic meeting-tool to automate your meeting processes like notes, attendance, and organization.

In general, the board Secretary is responsible for the minutes — but this does not mean that the Secretary must write the minutes. TIP: If you would like to free up your Secretary to fully participate in deliberation and decision-making, you can use a minute-taker who is not a director.

For the sake of consistency and accuracy, try to find someone who is good at the job and who can stick with it over time. What should minutes contain? Meeting minutes should record what was done — the decisions made and the actions taken — not what was said.

Standard contents include. TIP: Create a template for your minutes based on the meeting agenda. Include common ingredients, leaving space to fill in new decisions. Prepare an agenda that lists the meeting time, date, location and items for consideration, and attach any materials needed for review by members. Review all meeting materials before the meeting. If you use a computer to take notes, make sure you have a backup method e.

Prepare and bring an attendance sheet. Ask members to indicate their presence, as they arrive, by putting a check mark next to their name. After the meeting What to include Write the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting has taken place. Present the discussions neutrally, giving appropriate emphasis to arguments on all sides of the discussion. Use the passive voice to summarize the main points raised: It was moved, seconded and carried that… In the discussion about X the following points were raised… Proponents of the resolution elaborated on the rationale and, in response to a question, gave assurances that… Clearly identify each document presented and discussed.

The secretary should also sign them to show that they are a legally binding document of what happened at the meeting. It is essential to distribute the meeting minutes to all board members following the meeting and the approval of the chair, whether they attended or not. This allows them to read and digest the document, working on action points in their name and ensuring that the details enclosed are correct.

You can send meeting minutes through the post, by email or by using a board meeting portal that takes advantage of cloud technology. Allowing access to an online document has many advantages over hard copies or email attachments. It allows members to collaborate, and instantly flag up issues with the minutes. Rather than waiting until the next meeting and wasting time discussing errors, they can leave a note to tell the secretary exactly what they want to query.

This gives the secretary the opportunity to clarify whether there is a mistake and to adjust the document if there is. As soon as they update the document on the board portal, everyone has instant access to the new version from their computer, tablet or phone. The secretary does not have to spend time emailing everyone with an updated document or posting out new copies, which is also time-consuming and expensive. It also means that, whenever the board member wants to refer to the minutes, they will always access the more up to date version.

If there are multiple hard iterations of the minutes, it can be easy for a member to accidentally work from an outdated copy. Ensure you give details of who to contact with queries if you use hard copies, or how to flag issues if you use board meeting software.

If you are looking for a free minute taking template for your business, there are lots of options around. Google Docs contains a number of different minute templates, from the formal to the informal. Similarly, Microsoft Office offers a series of examples for you to customise and use for your meetings.

This is what it looks like when the secretary fills in the template with the minutes of a meeting:.