Meeting Minutes Make or Break your
Corporate Strategies :
Meetings can
be a very productive part of corporate culture or they may be a yoke around the
neck of management. It all depends on how use the information gained from your
meetings.
To collect
this information is the purpose of a meeting's minutes.
In today's
article, you will learn about how to take meeting minutes and some
of the kinds of information that you should record and some of the various
techniques currently used to record it.
It is
vitally important that your record what occurs in a meeting. However, of equal
import that the people be heard and their objections to agenda items and
solutions to problems as well as agreement need to be recorded as well. Only
then, can effective decisions be made and actions planned and taken for the
future.
Some common ways to capture information about a meeting:
Meetings may
be recorded in a number of manners depending on your corporate culture and the
amount of resources you wish to devote to your meetings.
You might
have on staff a professional stenographer who uses a Steno type machine and they
are present at all your company's meetings.
Often a
manager will bring his or her own personal assistant who is skilled in either
Gregg's Shorthand or the newer form called Speed Write.
The New
iPhone 6 has its own built in assistant called Siri that will record a meeting
and transcribe what it hears using Voice to Text technology. So, it is as if
you have a secretary taking down you dictation during a meeting.
Micro tape
recorders can record the complete meeting as can a tablet computer, and Digital
voice recorder can perform the same function and take up less space than a pack
of cigarettes.
Meeting
rooms now often have their own recording systems and transcripts of meetings
are prepared.
The solution to getting through the Maze of Meeting Minutes:
But you are
untimely responsible to obtain a good set of meeting minute and to do that well
you need to be prepare before the meeting even begins.
Preparing
the format the meeting minutes will take can be simplified by creating a
meeting minutes template for meetings and their minutes.
This
template should be laid out with time markers to record the time of items are
brought up for discussion and motions made on their merit.
A good
meeting Minutes format will include such things as: Who is the Chairman,
secretary recording the minutes, and a list of attendees.
Some
addition items that should be also included are, our Firms name, Start &
adjournment times.
The Date and
time of the meeting as well as the Topic of the meeting can be filled in prior
to the temple being printed out.
Detailed
information then can be filled in below such things as meeting content, items
requiring immediate action, and those assigned to execute the necessary
actions.
Finally, a
sign off section needs to be placed at the end of the meeting minute’s template
with reviewer(s) signatures and that of the person recording the minutes.
This type of
template can then be printed out and then filled in during the meeting.
This has the
advantage of creating uniformity in the meetings, so material need to be used
for creating action items can easily extracted.
The use of the agenda while creating the template is an additional advantage:
If you have
access to the meeting agenda, this facilities customizing of the template to
match the actual meeting content.
If your
company follows a standard format for meetings this saves you, from having to
create additional templates as you only have to put the appropriate agenda
items in their places in the template.
In either
case, if your meeting template matches the agenda it is to everyone's advantage
to do so.
This creates
a system that can let everyone know what is expected at a meeting.
This
streamlines the meeting process and this can save thousands of dollars in
wasted time annually
Additional things to do during the meeting itself:
During the
meeting, remember to record action items, votes taken, and outcomes of the
voting.
It also
behooves you to record items that are to be tabled and items to be brought up
at future meetings.
New business
should be held until the end of the meeting after the other items on the agenda
have been covered.
You should
also record which items are taken under consideration, those that are rejected,
and why.
Meeting
minutes not only plan for the future, but can also plot the history of a
company and in some instances may be subpoenaed by a court of law. So, any and
information should be recorded if it is thought of trivial consequence.
Check-off, Checkout/Check-in, and Storage:
Having a check
off sheet, which each attendee is marked as present or absent, is a nice to
have feature of while taking minutes and just a small check box, by each
attendee helps keep track of who was present.
Also, leave
room to fill in names of additional attendees that show up as well.
One of the
things many neglect is the proper storage and utilization of the minutes after
the meeting.
They should
be transcribed neatly and formatted so they are easily read. Action items and
those responsible should be listed in a separate section with all name and
contact information included.
Proper
formatting of the final meeting document is as important as the initial temple
you used to record them.
Your final
document should be usable to schedule future meetings as well as serve as a
work document to accomplish the goals that were agreed to in the meeting.
Filling and
the storage of the minutes should be in secure and protected area.
This means treating these documents as vital
to your company’s existence. Corporate theft is especial rampant today and
meeting information can give foreign/domestic competition a leg up on all your
product plans, patents, and marketing strategies.
So
exercising control over access to the meeting minutes should be considered a
high priority.
Numbered
copies and signing for said copies and checking the copies back in after use
should be as routine as carrying your name badge when at work
If you
follow the above suggestions you meeting minutes will help your company create
new business /products/services, solve problems, and move your company forward
into the future.
Conclusion:
Learning how to take meeting minutes and using them can make or break an organization’s
ability to get useful information and take action effectively solve the complex
issues facing it today.
Meeting minutes format is a
secret often ignored which if you use it well, can serve to get meeting
information into a form that is usable by all.
Nice Sites for Free Templates:
Meeting Minutes Templates for Word - Vertex42 - Vertex42.com
MEETING MINUTES (template) - Google Docs Templates - Docs.google.com
PTA meeting minutes - Templates - Microsoft Office - Office.com
Meeting Agenda Template - Savewordtemplates.org
