Tips to Take Effective Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes-taker must have some skills for the written meeting minutes to be useful in the application. After all, the main goal is to track progress and task completion. The document serves as a reminder to all directors of the previous meeting. 

Besides, it is a short guide for those who were absent. Concise does not mean a lack of information. A minutes-taker captures everything important that is relevant to the meeting of directors. That is the value of the meeting minutes, the main objectives of which are:

• refreshing the memory of directors after the meeting and before the next one;
• distribution of tasks in writing, which significantly increases the responsibility of performers;
•   providing an informative start to the next meeting;
• awareness of absent participants;
• providing a list of decisions taken to avoid misunderstandings.

Today corporations use board software. It makes the task easier by including automated mechanisms for how to take minutes for a meeting. Ready-made templates do not allow the secretary to forget about all the most crucial points.

What to Include to Write Effective Meeting Minutes

The board minutes of the meeting should be a quality resource of information that is easy and unambiguous. The secretary is aware of the reasons for negotiations and purposes. Otherwise, it is impossible to highlight the most significant aspects and be useful to the board of directors.

There are several tips to help minute-takers achieve the desired result.

1. The developed agenda is about a meeting of directors following standards. It is also high-quality meeting minutes. This way you allocate time to discuss each topic and do not lose the course. Moreover, board members are aware of the problems. The agenda is an integral part of the meeting minutes.
2. Time, date, and place are in the minutes of the meeting.
3. A list of the directors present is a mandatory item. A board secretary arrives at the meeting early, welcomes those who come, and makes a list of their names, surnames, positions.
4. Decisions and further action plans are an indicator of the effectiveness of the meeting. A minute-taker always indicates this data.
5. Orders and deadlines. This item is a way to control the performance of the board of directors and to track the work. At the beginning of each next meeting, it is easier to assess the work performed and identify outstanding tasks.
6. If the date of the next meeting is already known, the board secretary indicates it.

Thanks to the modern tool for taking meeting minutes – board portal software, secretaries are less likely to make big mistakes. The platform makes it easy to create a document at a professional level. Learn more about board of directors software advantages.

Checking Meeting Minutes

Checking the meeting minutes is one of the significant tasks of the board secretary. This way they can identify faults and supplement the document with information in time. Before making sure that the meeting minutes are taken following the rules and standards, answer a few questions.

• Are there a list of participants, the date and place of the meeting of directors? Remember that if some participants did not attend the meeting, the secretary indicates them as absent.
• Are the topics that were raised during the negotiations discussed? Discussion is the reason and basis for the board meeting. Without this information, the minutes of the meeting are of no value.
• Are there any decisions made? It is necessary to make sure that this information is in the document. Otherwise, the board of directors will have to be convened again.
• Is there a list of actions and tasks that must be completed? The list should consist of the jobs themselves, their executors, and deadlines.
• Details about the next meeting, if any.

After a detailed check, the minutes of the meeting can be approved and sent to directors.

Here you can find a full guide about how to take minutes for a meeting and meeting minutes template.

Secretaries use board portal software to work more effectively taking advantage of the groundbreaking tool. Automated mechanisms for creating, checking, and sending meeting minutes are to save time and improve document quality.