It’s no secret that not everyone is fond of meetings, but whether you dread them or love a good brainstorming session, they’re an unavoidable part of any office routine. From informal team check ins to structured board meetings, the element they have in common is the need to take minutes.
The role of meeting minutes in business is to record the discussions, decisions and reports on the progress that comprised the proceedings. This article answers the basic question, “What are meeting minutes?” and provides some tips on taking effective minutes. It also offers a template for easy and thorough note-taking.
What are meeting minutes?
Official minutes document the most important points discussed during a business meeting. They aren’t a full transcript and shouldn’t include too much detail. Instead, they should cover the highlights and the most crucial details. In less formal settings, meeting notes provide a record of the discussion for future reference. In more formal settings such as board meetings, companies take minutes and file them as legal documents.
Why take meeting minutes?
Well-organized and thorough meeting minutes provide many benefits:
- Institutional memory: It’s important to be able to retrieve facts, decisions, votes taken, conflicts, attendees and other important details when needed. This can resolve debates over what occurred and help absent team members catch up with new developments.
- Legal protection: Auditors, courts and the IRS consider meeting minutes official records of the actions of an organization and its board. Documented proof of what happened at a meeting can be critical.
- Measuring progress: Meeting minutes can serve as a timeline of progress on projects, substantive decision-making and the effective execution of action items.
- Determining ownership: Minutes record votes and owners of tasks and decisions, clarifying who’s responsible for specific actions and simplifying accountability.
- Effective planning: Having access to the decisions and information generated at a meeting can be crucial for short- and long-term planning. Good meeting minutes can enhance the accuracy and pertinence of the planning process.
- Enhancing efficiency: It’s important for the whole team to have access to information from meetings in order to operate at full efficiency. This awareness can eliminate duplication of efforts or the wastage of time and energy on tasks that are no longer priorities.
- Creating a starting point: If the team meets regularly, your previous meeting notes can remind you where the last discussion ended. Having this as a starting point for the currentmeeting eliminates the needto get back up to speed before embarking on the current agenda.
Recent Comments