Minutes Of The Meeting...
Check weekly minutes meeting templates that are available online to get a better idea of how to create the needed details you want. Future – These meeting minutes can also be used to remind an organization of the activities it has planned for success in the future. Importance of Writing Minutes of the Meetings: Motivate members to get things done. Minutes are a written record of a board, company, or organizational meeting. Meeting minutes are considered a legal document, so when writing them, strive for clarity and consistency of tone. Because minutes are a permanent record of the meeting, be sure to proofread them well before sending. In this special report, How to Write Meeting Minutes, you’ll learn tips and tools to take accurate, professional minutes and save time using meeting minutes templates. Whether you’ve never taken minutes before or you want to take your skills to the next level, How to Write Meeting Minutes will help you master the task. Meeting minutes are a document that captures the value created by a meeting. This can include knowledge, requirements, designs, decisions, agreements, risk identification, issues and action items. The format of meeting minutes varies considerably from meeting to meeting. Meeting minutes, or mom (for minutes of meeting) can be defined as the written record of everything that's happened during a meeting. They're used to inform people who didn't attend the meeting about what happened, or to keep track of what was decided during the meeting so that you can revisit it and use it to inform future decisions.
Reading Time: 4minutesHow do you condense a meeting that may last several hours into a few pages of concise, understandable minutes? Meeting minutes are the official record of what decisions were made, who was in attendance and all other consequential events that occurred during the board meeting. As a matter of law, minutes must be taken to legally prove that a meeting was held.
While it might seem like a challenging task, there are certain strategies and tips to keep in mind if you’re assigned as the note taker or secretary of the board for an organization.
For a complete in-depth discussion at what meeting minutes are, why are they important, how to write effective minutes to drive good governance: Download our Comprehensive White Paper: Everything You Need to Know About Meeting Minutes.
Here’s a closer look at how to write effective board meeting minutes:
Create a Note-Taking Outline
A few days before the meeting, get your hands on a copy of the meeting agenda. This will help you get an idea of what issues are going to be covered and help you organize a note-taking outline. Creating a note-taking outline will enable you to be a better listener and note-taker. You will not need to worry about notating each change in topic because you already know what topics will be discussed and when. Instead, you can focus on what is being said.
If you use a cloud based board portal likeOnBoard, you can export the agenda and use it as a template for note-taking. OnBoard saves any notes you take in the cloud which allows you to access your notes anytime and anywhere.
Be Selective
It is not advisable that minutes be taken in significant detail. Taking notes on the entire meeting will result in disorganized, messy minutes, so – rather than typing furiously – listen carefully to the topics being discussed and document the significant points of the discussion.
Meeting minutes should be specific enough to prove the board was focused on the business at hand, but not so detailed as to pose a liability to the company. But keep in mind that, while you want your them to be “short and sweet,” they should not be so minimal that suspicions are raised in an audit over the lack of discussion over a major decision.
To achieve this balancing act, it is important to paraphrase each topic that’s being discussed before identifying the action that was taken.
If you are having trouble distilling your meeting, use the example below of how an easy but sufficiently detailed set of meeting minutes may look like:
—
[Company]
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
[Date]
Present:
[Name of CEO] [Name of director 1][Name of director 2][Name of director 3][Name of director 4]
Absent:
[Name of director 5] [Name of director 6]
Also Present:
[Name of legal counsel]
Minutes Of The Meeting Mom
Call to Order
[Name of the The CEO or chairman of the board] called the meeting to order and presided. [Name of secretary or legal counsel] recorded the minutes. A quorum of directors being present, the meeting proceeded with business
Approval of Minutes
[Name] presented the board the minutes of [date of meeting]. A motion was made by [Name] to accept the minutes as presented and was seconded and unanimously approved as presented.
CEO Report
[Name of CEO] discussed the agenda and reported on progress since last meeting. A discussion began after several board members asked questions.
Sales & Business Development Update
[name] displayed a brief presentation displaying an update of the sales. He discussed about plans for the future quarter and answered questions.
Financial Review
[Name] provided an update on the financial status of the company and presented a forecast. Questions were raised about certain metrics. Discussion ensued.
Financial Planning
The Board turned to the issue of [year] operating plan. [Name] suggested further information would be provided for the next meeting.
Closed Session
The Board turned to the discussion of strategic initiatives. A discussion ensued where questions were asked and answered.
Adjournment
Business was concluded, the meeting adjourned at [time].
Respectfully submitted,
[name of secretary,] [title]
—
As you can see, the minutes provide sufficient information to demonstrate that the board was focused on pertinent business. Always be sure you’re writing notes objectively, summarizing any debate on issues, and using names when motions are presented and seconded.
Distribution
The final step is distribution to all parties in preparation of the next board meeting. There are many ways to do this, including sending them through email, mail, or using board portal software like OnBoard.
The most sophisticated method developed to instantly submit and review minutes is through the board portal, OnBoard. By leveraging Microsoft Office, OnBoard instantly connects to the board portal, seamlessly uploading the notes when they are finished. The advanced plugin, OnBoard Connect for Office, creates an OnBoard tab within your Word environment. Once securely logged in, you can draft minutes in Word and they will instantly sync with every directors board book.
Filing Minutes
After the minutes have been approved and shared with the board members, they need to be safely stored for future reference and potential audits. While physical storage of notes seems logical, depending on the sensitivity of the information, saving your notes on an encrypted external hard drive and with a backup within a secure cloud environment is the most secure option. Any minutes created and saved in board portals like OnBoard can be saved and protected for reference with little hassle.
In Conclusion
While creating meeting minutes may often seems tedious, they are critical for maintaining a company backlog of all important decisions made and ensuring you are sufficiently meeting legal requirements. Quality minutes will be worth the time and effort you put into them – and may save you time and money dealing with legal issues down the line.
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About The Author
- Passageways is a SaaS provider of collaboration solutions for boards and employees. OnBoard is a board governance solution, designed to improve collaboration for directors and administrators throughout the meeting life cycle. OnSemble's a lovable, drag and drop, Employee Intranet that connects an entire workplace to one central collaboration hub, builds your culture, and inspires employee engagement.
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What is meeting minutes?
Meeting minutes serve an important purpose in a discussion or meeting. It provides an overall idea of what will be discussed at the meeting, who will host the meeting, what is the purpose of the meeting, what actions will be taken and so on. These minutes also include a list of people who are going to attend the meeting.Why do you need meeting minutes template?
Basically, meeting minutes template acts as a journal for those attending the meeting and also at the same time used as a summary for those who failed to attend the meeting. Every person attending the meeting needs to sign the document to confirm that anything that is discussed in the meeting is reliable. This helps preventing further confusions regarding the actions that need to be taken to deal with a particular issue or problem.Before conducting a regular meeting on any project, it is good to check meeting minutes at the very beginning to note what actions were agreed upon. This is an important thing of a successful agenda. However, preparing meeting templates is not an easy task. You need to create a proper format to note the important points of a meeting in an organized way. This seems to be a tedious task. Right? Well, you have a solution now as meeting minutes template is available online which you can download easily from your computer or desktop and organize it in a way you like.However, if you still have doubts regarding the use of meeting minutes in a discussion or project meeting, the following are five important reasons why you should make use of meeting minutes templates in your next meeting.Reasons to use meeting minutes templates
They offer a structure
- Though there is no particular structure or format is followed in meeting minutes, the court makes it necessary for companies to give reasonable effort on reporting the important facts of the meeting in an organized way. Therefore, while formatting meeting minutes of your company, make sure it clearly describes how the attendants or board members of your company arrive at a mutual decision. This minute template should include a space for the name of the organization, name of the members who are invited to attend the meeting, date and time of the meeting and the name of the person who will host it.
They ensure legal protection
- Meeting minutes play an important role if you want to run your business as per state laws and taxation policy. These minutes represent the actions taken by the board members or company regarding its internal revenue service, legal documents, and the courts. The legal experts also make sure that if an action is not mentioned in the minute, it means it did not happen.
They are used as measuring sticks
- Meeting minutes are used as an important review document as it requires measuring progress on a particular issue or project. These are mainly used as accountability tools that make it clear whose responsibility is it to perform a particular function. So, be sure to structure meeting minutes while organizing a meeting of the board of directors.
They are helpful in driving action
- Meeting minutes help to follow a plan of action for employees and leadership team. They make it clear as to why, how, when and by whom legal actions are taken. They also help in framing an action plan that can make it easy to get work done in less time and yields better results. It offers valuable information to those team members who are unable to attend a particular meeting.
What are the main elements to consider in a meeting minutes template?
Heading
- The heading of the template must include the name of the company or committee, the location where the meeting is going to be held and date and time of the meeting.
Meeting attendees
- It must include the names of those who are invited to take part in the meeting along with the apologies sent by those people who could not attend the meeting and thereby require minutes copies.
Name of the action items
- The items or issues that require action should clearly be mentioned in the template. These minutes templates must include a detailed report on each issue discussed in the meeting. For each topic, make sure that the subject of the topic, the name of the person who raised the issue and a decision taken by the committee is clearly mentioned in the document.
Announcement
- This is an important section of this document that includes important announcements on the part of the participants or others who have sent their apologies along with proposed agenda for next discussion.
Signature
- This place must include the signature of the person who prepares meeting minutes along with the date when the document is submitted. Some minutes documents require more than one authorized signature to consider it from legal perspectives.
Important meeting minutes tips
- Select an individual as note taker
- Include specific information in the document as per the meeting type
- Mention the meeting start time and location if required
- Choose a particular style for writing your meeting minutes such as discussion, verbatim, and action
- Record necessary discussions, conclusions and statements regarding meeting action items
- Distribute the minutes among all attendees who attend the meeting
Types of meeting minutes format
There are mainly three types of meeting minutes format followed in a meeting or discussion. Each of these formats have their own style and elements. Let’s have a look at them –Action minute
- It includes the actions and decisions that are agreed upon to resolve a particular issue.
Discussion minute
- It includes both actions and discussions that were carried out in the meeting. It also defines the facts that led to the actions decided to be taken upon.
Verbatim minute
- It includes every single details of what took place in the meeting.
How to write meeting minute?
Meeting minutes are used as a document that records everything about a meeting such as what were the decisions taken, what actions were agreed to be taken upon, who must take an action and when.In today’s age, key meetings take place in every organization or office, and a number of decisions and actions were decided to be taken upon that may involve million dollars. Therefore, keeping records of every meeting in a detailed manner is very important and only a meeting minute can do this task in an organized way. Here, you will get some helpful tips on how to write meeting minutes. Let’s have a look at them –Prepare an outline
- For preparing a meeting minute, you need to create an outline based on the subject of the meeting. It will make your task easier to jot down the decisions and actions that are agreed to be taken in the meeting. If you are writing these notes by hand, make sure you leave enough space after each item so that you can include additional points if the topic is further discussed.
Check the presence of all attendees
- As soon as the attendees enter the meeting room, you must check them off before the meeting starts. If the attendees do not introduce themselves, circulate the attendee list among them so that they can check them off.
Minutes Of The Meeting Email Sample
Record actions and decisions to take up for a certain item
- When the committee members or board of directors arrive at a decision or make an important note, make sure that they are recorded accurately in the document.
Minutes Of The Meeting Template
Ask for amplification if it requires
- If the committee members or attendees of the meeting switch to another topic without taking any clear note or decision on an important issue, you have the right to ask for clarification.
No need to include each and every detail in the document
- You will not be able to include important points in the doc if you aim at writing down the entire conversation. Make sure to include only important points, assignments, decisions and actions discussed in the meeting.
Minutes Of The Meeting Sample Format
10 questions you must ask while taking minute notes
- When is the meeting going to be held?2. Who will attend the meeting?3. Who will not be able to attend the meeting?4. What are the topics will be discussed?5. What are the decisions taken?6. What actions are decided to be taken upon?7. Who will be responsible for taking those actions and when?8. Are minutes notes distributed among the attendees?9. Is there anything special to be mentioned in the minutes of meeting?10. Is there a follow-up meeting scheduled? If yes, when, where and at what time?
Do’s and don’ts to follow in writing minutes of meeting
- Write meeting minutes right after the meeting, preferably within 48 hours.
- Do not skip writing the notes just because everyone attended the meeting. Always remember, this is an important document to keep records of every discussion and actions decided to be taken upon.
- No need to describe a statement as he said, or she said. However, if anyone made any important point, in that case, you can put the name of the person to make it specific.
- Do not include any information that looks irrelevant to the content
- Always use a positive language rather than making it a heated discussion.