Minutes of Meeting Tutorial
Copyright © 2001-2005
This meeting minutes tutorial will explain
how to compile minutes of meetings.
Minutes are a record of the proceedings of
a meeting e.g. who attended and did not, discussion that took place,
action to be taken, time the meeting closed.
The way the minutes are recorded may differ
depending on the type of meeting it is. By this I mean, you may need
to record all the discussion as well as the resolutions or you may only
need to record the resolution and not worry about the discussion leading
up to the resolution. Sometimes, organizations also prefer the
action officer is listed so it is clear whose responsibility it is to
perform the action in the resolution. This is something you
must clarify if the President of a Company or the Manager you are taking
the minutes for.
Many minute clerks use shorthand to take notes
at meetings. If you're interested in
learning shorthand, try the following course or try this alternative to
shorthand in this great book for beginners:
All official minutes (with a mover,
seconder and that are carried) need to have a minute reference
number. Minute numbers carry on from one meeting to another e.g.
last meeting had resolutions numbered 21000 - 21050 and the next meeting
will have numbers 21051 - 21000.
When you type back your minutes, you must
keep all matters in the order they were discussed at the meeting - even if
they differ to your agenda. Sometimes items are discussed earlier as
someone may not be able to stay at the meeting for the full length of the
meeting.
Remember, if you cannot hear, you cannot
record accurate minutes and this is the purpose of being the Secretary or
Minute Clerk. If you cannot hear, please interrupt the meeting and
address the Chairman (as Mr Chairman) to advise you cannot hear. The
Chairman will then request the speaker to speak louder and clearer.
It is most important that you hear. It is suggested you always sit
beside the Chairman so it is easy to answer any questions he may have or
you may have.
A handy book to assist you with your minute
taking (includes information from setting up the meeting, agenda to
recording minutes) is Taking
Minutes of Meetings (creating success).
Who will take the Minutes?
Minutes are usually taken by the Secretary
or Minute Clerk. If you are the person nominated to take the
minutes, ensure you receive a copy of the agenda when it is distributed so
that you are familiar with the matters to be discussed. If there are
confidential matters in the agenda that are supported by written reports
or correspondence, please make sure you receive copies of these pages as
well as it will have pertinent information that you may need to record in
your minutes e.g. correct names, property descriptions, file number
etc. It will save you chasing this information later when typing up
your minutes.
Minute Clerk or Secretary's Equipment
Check List
Before you enter the meeting room, please
check you have the following tools and equipment with you:
- 2 pencils or biros (whatever you are
going to use to record the minutes)
- Paper
- Dictaphone
(to clarify any uncertainties
when typing your minutes up)
- Agenda
Also ensure the following have been made
available if it is not your responsibility as you no doubt will be the one
having to chase up the equipment at the last minute.
- The meeting room has been set up (refer tutorial
on this)
- Supporting correspondence that has not
been included in the agenda but is required
- Any maps or plans that will be viewed by
those present
- Data Processor or Overhead Project (OHP)
if necessary and screen
- White Board, markers, and duster
- Laser Pointer or
Ruler
Now it is time for the most important part
of your duty - recording the minutes.
Know what to Record
Now that you have already been advised the
format of what to record, you will need to ensure you record the following
information:
- Name of Company, Description of Meeting,
Place, Date and Time of meeting
- Those present
- Any apologies received from Committee
members
- Welcome - if the Chairman/President
opens the meeting with a welcome message
- Adoption of Minutes of Previous meeting
- Business Arising from the Minutes
- Adoption of Inward/Outward
Correspondence
- Adoption of Financial Statements and
Accounts for Payment
- Agenda Items listed in your agenda
- General Business
- Noted Correspondence
- Date, time and venue of next meeting
- Time the meeting concluded
Company Name, Description, Location,
Date and Time of meeting
Record the time the meeting started -
usually included in the heading with the date when typing back the minutes
as below:
MINUTES OF MEETING OF
COMPANY NAME
HELD AT ......................ON MONDAY, 2ND JANUARY 2004 AT 9.00AM
Those present
List the names of all those
present. The best way to do this if you do not know everyone is to
use an attendance sheet. This sheet will be headed up with the name
of the meeting, the date and time of the meeting and use columns so that
everyone can print their name, the organization they represent (if do not
work for your company) and their position title within the organization.
You would then type this information up in alphabetical order - please
ensure you always start with the Chairman/President and end with the
Secretary or Minute Clerk as sometimes they are not members of the
Committee. If you are an elected Secretary of a sporting organization
etc, you would be list President, Vice-President, Treasurer,
Secretary and then other members
PRESENT: Mr J
Smith (President)
Ms M Allen (Manager, Allen & Associates)
Mr C Jones (Deputy Manager, Jones Brothers)
etc
etc
Ms T Staples (Minute Clerk) (or substitute your title here)
Any apologies received from
Committee members
The Chairman/President will
call for apologies and if you have received apologies from any members,
this is when you would advise the meeting of their names or you would have
previously passed this information on to the Chairman/President prior to
the commencement of the meeting. Other Committee members may also
have received some and they too will advise of names. You must
record all these names for your minutes. In your minutes, you will
type them as follows:
APOLOGIES: Ms M
Street (Senior Advisor, Commercial Business Association)
etc.
Welcome - if the
Chairman/President opens the meeting with a welcome message
This does not always need to
be recorded but if the meeting was called for a specific purpose and the
purpose does not happen each month, then I would record it. You
could use the following format:
WELCOME:
The Chairman welcomed those
members present and advised the meeting had been called to discuss the
merits of introducing a subscription fee so that free advice can continue
to be given to clients.
Adoption of Minutes of
Previous meeting
As the minutes of the previous
meeting would either have been distributed as part of the agenda or tabled
on the day of the meeting for members to read, so that they can then
become an official record of the meeting of the company or committee, the
minutes will need to be moved and seconded as a true and correct
record. A standard resolution of this is as follows:
ADOPTION OF MINUTES OF
PREVIOUS MEETING:
MOVED BY M ALLEN,
"That the minutes of the
meeting of the Records Department held on 2nd December 2003 be adopted as
a true and correct record."
SECONDED BY C
JONES
CARRIED
The above is one format, it
could also be as follows:
MOVED BY M ALLEN, SECONDED BY
C JONES:
"That the minutes of the
meeting of the Records Department held on 2nd December 2003 be adopted as
a true and correct record."
The above format can be used
for all resolutions that are moved and seconded, or follow the format that
your company, committee or organization uses.
Business Arising from the
Minutes
Once the minutes have been
adopted, members present may need further information or resolutions
recorded on matters listed in the minutes. Usually, if it is advice
you would just record these as sub-headings with brief detail of what was
said about it. Example:
BUSINESS ARISING FROM THE
MINUTES:
Adoption of Inward/Outward
Correspondence
Usually, companies will ask
that members accept the inward and outward correspondence. An
example of this would be as follows:
ADOPTION OF INWARD AND
OUTWARD CORRESPONDENCE:
MOVED BY M ALLEN,
"That the Inward
Correspondence be received and the Outward Correspondence be
approved."
SECONDED BY C
JONES
CARRIED
Adoption of Financial
Statements and Accounts for Payment
You must record the period and
the amount. You could refer to previous minutes for wording of this,
but below is an example:
MOVED BY M ALLEN,
"That the Financial
Statements for the period 1st July 2003 to 31st December 2003 be approved
and the Accounts for Payment for the period 1st December to 31st December
2003 be approved."
SECONDED BY C
JONES
CARRIED
Agenda Items listed in your
agenda
Matters listed on the agenda
are usually there because a decision is necessary. This means you
will need to record a resolution detailing action that is required.
You would type a brief heading referring to the matter discussed (could
use similar wording as in the agenda), a minute number, a mover, seconder
and whether the minute was carried. Use the same format as listed
above, or the format your company or committee uses.
General Business
General Business is where
members present at the meeting raise matters that need a formal decision
made or inform those present of up to date information about a
matter. Usually every member is asked if they have any General
Business to be raised.
Once again, you may have to
record both the matters raised for discussion and the formal
resolution. If it is a formal resolution, use the same format as
above.
Noted Correspondence
All items listed on the agenda
do not necessarily need a decision made but were listed for the
information of the members. In this case the matter would be listed
as noted correspondence.
Some agendas already have
these items all listed together as "Noted Correspondence" as no
decision or action is necessary and you would need to copy this list into
your minutes.
If after discussion at the
meeting it was decided that a matter listed on the agenda did not need any
action or decision after all, this item would then be added to the
existing list of noted correspondence as well. Alternatively, you
could list the item in the minutes with a minute number and the resolution
would be worded "That the matter be noted.".
Date, time and venue of next meeting
This information needs to be recorded but
would not have a minute number. This is a format you could use if
the venue was moved from town to town:
NEXT MEETING:
The next meeting of the Committee will be
held on Monday, 3rd February 2004 at (location is full address) at
9.00am
If the meeting was at the same venue each
time, you would simply list the date and time of the meeting.
Time the meeting concluded
You always check the time the
meeting finishes and this gets recorded in the minutes. An example
would be:
CONCLUSION:
There being no further
business, the meeting concluded at 10.30am.
Under this, always make
provision for the Chairman/President to sign the minutes and date them.
There are many Templates for minutes
available for you already without having to develop your own.
See below the type of information you can
access right here:
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