Make Writing Meeting Minutes Easy

By: Steve Kaye
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:53:59
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

Some people think that minutes are unnecessary.

This is true for any meeting where people wasted their time accomplishing nothing. In that case the person responsible for the mess would want to hide it.

But good leaders like minutes.

They want to publicize the work that they accomplished. They want others to know that they hold effective meetings. And they want to document the action items, decisions, and accomplishments from the meeting.

But writing minutes can be a chore.

So, how can you produce minutes - easily, quickly, and effectively?

Use these tips:

1) Ask a facilitator (or scribe) to attend your meeting. During the meeting the facilitator will write all of the key ideas, decisions, and agreements on chart paper.

This helps make your meeting more effective by letting the participants see their work as they produce it.

It keeps people focused on the issue.

It frees you to participate without having to work at recording the meeting.

And it documents the results of the meeting as it progresses.

After the meeting, ask the facilitator (or scribe) to prepare a draft of the minutes from the chart notes.

2) Put only the highlights of the meeting in the minutes. This would include action items, decisions, and agreements. Avoid creating a word-for-word documentation of everything that was said. If you need to capture every detail, use a recorder.

3) If you must write the minutes, use the notes written on the chart pages as a rough draft of your minutes. If possible, have an assistant copy them and then edit the draft.

Some organizations skip typing the notes: they just make letter-sized copies of the chart pages and distribute those as the minutes.

4) Send the minutes within a day after the meeting. This publicizes the meeting while people still remember it, and it conveys the news while it's still relevant.

- - -

Steve Kaye helps leaders hold effective meetings. He is an IAF Certified Professional Facilitator, author, and speaker. His meeting facilitation and leadership workshops create success for everyone. Call 714-528-1300 for details. Visit http://www.stevekaye.com for a free report.

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Management category

  • Employee involvement - By: john david
    Employee involvement involves the creation of an environment wherein people are involved in the decision making process that have an impact on the decisions and the actions that have a bearing on the jobs.
  • Work from Home Based Business With 7 Secrets of Internet Millionaires - By: Gagan kainth
    The external and internal secrets of Internet millionaires are explored. Find out what the Internet millionaires know that has made them so successful.
  • The Top 10 Questions to Ask Your Community Association Management Company - By: James Small
    Throughout the industry, HOA Management Companies overload their community managers by giving them too many homeowners associations to manage
  • Things to think about before hiring an accountant - By: Michiel Van Kets
    Locating a good honest accountant is not as simple as you would think. The majority of us looks in a local directory and chooses the first one who answers the phone.
  • A Chartered Accountant Can Help You In Many Ways - By: Michiel Van Kets
    The function of a chartered accountant can be intricate to understand, the majority just associates them with tax returns.
  • Considerable Factors involved in Product Creation & Marketing - By: Kamal Kant Gupta
    The niche you have chosen should allow creation of more than one product or service. With the technological advancements in the hosting industry, from automated control panels and scripts that simplify creation of accounts, to complete turnkey solutions; there is no need to worry about spending time on the real products sold to the customer.
  • No One Wants To Hear They Have An Ugly Baby - By: Rene Jones
    It's time to admit you have an, "Ugly Baby!" Or, in distribution terminology, "Admit your warehouse is in shambles!" If your warehouse has returns that sit around for days without being processed, "Your warehouse is in shambles." If your warehouse has receiving that does not get received for days, then once it is received it sits again before it is put away, "Your warehouse is in shambles!" If your customer service personnel spend more time in the warehouse checking stock, because your inventory is so inaccurate, "Your warehouse is in shambles!"
  • Make your Sales Team the Best with Excellent Sales Training - By: John McLean
    An article that shows you how to get the best sales team with the best training courses
  • Highlighting The Benefits Of Project Management Training - By: Gurinder Singh
    Project management is one of the important processes of an organization for the simple reason that it answers a lot of your questions and adds order to the company. With this, project management training is important to ensure that you have the right skills and knowledge when it comes to doing project management.
  • Benefits of Management are Essential for Business - By: Avesh Dahiya
    During the implementation of project, the benefits manager has to check whether the benefits are being achieved within the specified time frame. Therefore helps the management in selecting the right projects.