Business Communication

PREPARING MINUTES OF THE

MEETING

Submitted to:
Ms. Gimelyn B. Tanquerido, MBA

Submitted by:
AIREEN DEOCAMPO
RICHEL MAE VILLA
JONNA MAE CONDES
KATRINA ANN ILAGAN
WHAT ARE THE MEETING MINUTES?

Meeting minutes are notes that are recorded during a meeting. They highlight the key
issues that are discussed, motions proposed or voted on, and activities to be
undertaken. The minutes of a meeting are usually taken by a designated member of the
group. Their task is to provide an accurate record of what transpired during the meeting.

Meeting minutes, therefore, serve as a historical record of board decisions. Meeting

minutes can be specific to board meeting minutes, where the parties involved include a
board member or a board of directors. Meeting minutes can also be written for a
committee meeting or any other type of meeting that requires an official record.

Meeting minutes record the important events of both formal and informal meetings.
Some of the most common uses of meeting minutes include:

 Record keeping of takeaways and objectives of the meeting

 Summary for those who couldn’t attend the meeting
 Legal documents in case of formal meetings
 Reference document for future meeting

ELEMENTS OF MINUTES OF THE MEETING

 Date and time

 Names of present and absent participants
 Location
 Meeting agenda
 Topics discussed
 List of motions raised, and voting outcomes
 Key takeaways
 Next actionable steps

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If the purpose is to discuss the progress of an ongoing project, then minutes should
include:

 Project status
 Supplementary documents
 Next tasks assigned
 Name of individuals assigned for each task
 Deadlines set for following tasks

EXAMPLE OF MEETING MINUTES

Informal team meeting minutes template

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Below is an example from a more formal board meeting.

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STEPS INVOLVED IN RECORDING MEETING MINUTES
There are five main steps involved in recording the minutes of a meeting. They are:
 Pre-planning
 Record-taking
 Writing or transcribing the minutes
 Sharing meeting minutes
 Filing or storage of minutes for referencing in the future

3 types of Meeting Minutes Standard

There are three standard meeting minutes formats: action, discussion, and verbatim.
Although the styles share certain elements, each style has a specific use:

1. Action minutes - Decisions reached and the actions to be taken. They include
only the decisions made and none of the discussions that went into making them.
In other words, they capture only the conclusion of discussions and the actions
that need to be taken.
2. Discussion minutes – Also known as Anecdotal Minutes this contain
everything action minutes do as well as the discussion which leads to the actions
decided upon. They document the consensus of the discussions that lead to the
decisions and decisions/actions required.
3. Verbatim minutes - a record of every single word said at a meeting.

The most common format of meeting minutes is Action minutes, though depending on
the meeting type, you may need to adapt a different format of minutes, or even a
combination of the 3.

What not to include in meeting minutes

1. Don’t write a transcript.
Capturing it all would be impossible, so don’t bother with writing a transcript of the
meeting. Alternatively, choose to listen attentively for large-scale decisions, action
items, problems and any solutions proposed. Instead of documenting everything that

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was said, try including facts about your meeting in terms of what has been decided and
discussed.

2. Don’t include personal comments.

While writing meeting minutes, remember to be professional and to provide an
unbiased, equitable view of the meeting. It’s really important to keep an objective stance
for the sake of making smart business decisions. This isn’t the time or place to include
your personal comments or opinions.

3. Don’t wait to type up the minutes.

Type during the meeting or as soon as possible after a meeting when everything is still
fresh in your mind. Record your meeting minutes as they’re happening so that you can
document accurately and appropriately. The longer you wait, the less accurate they
become.

4. Don’t handwrite the meeting minutes.

Although there’s nothing wrong with some good old fashioned handwriting, consider
using a more effective manner to get information down as quickly and efficiently as
possible. If you type out your notes, you’re gaining speed and a little extra help from
technology for efficiency.
Instead of hand writing the meeting minutes, using a tool like Fellow will help you keep
organized with everything in one convenient spot.

What to include in meeting minutes

1. Use the agenda as a guide.
The agenda will show you what needs to be discussed during the meeting. Use the
meeting agenda as an outline, with each agenda item as a sub-topic where you can add
more specific notes.
Even better, if similar meetings have taken place before, you can use previous meeting
agendas as a template in order to begin taking your minutes with some structure
already in place.

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Using a strong meeting agenda template will help you create consistently structured and
sufficiently detailed minutes.

2. List the date, time, and names of the attendees.

Before you actually begin writing the minutes, start with the basics. First, provide the
date, time and location of the meeting. Next, document the names of all of the meeting
participants and any individuals who were unable to attend. It is likely that at the
beginning of the meeting, there will be some time dedicated to the acceptance or
amendment to previous meeting minutes.

3. Keep minutes at any meeting where people vote.

Ensure you are documenting the decisions made at any meeting where people take a
vote. Be sure to record all motions and outcomes of votes. Record the number of votes
and if possible, add some detail for context so that when you’re adding more information
to the notes later, you’ll understand the motives behind the decisions.

4. Stay objective. Record what is discussed and decided without giving a

judgment.
Generally meeting minutes need to stay objective. Make sure the minutes of the
meeting include language that is clear, unambiguous, and complete. It’s important to
write your meeting minutes objectively, avoiding adjectives and adverbs where you can
to avert bias as much as possible.

The Process of Writing Meeting Minutes

When the meeting ends, the individual tasked with writing minutes should get all the
resources he needs to write up the minutes in a clear, presentable way. Here are some
tips to consider.
Once the meeting ends, don’t take too long to write the minutes. This way, everything
that took place in the meeting is still fresh in your mind

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Review the outline that had been created earlier and make adjustments where
necessary. This might include adding extra information or clarifying some of the issues
raised. Also, check to see that all verdicts, activities, and motion answered clearly
recorded.
Revise the minutes and ensure they’re brief but clear.

Distributing the Meeting Minutes

Once the secretary completes writing the minutes, he’s supposed to share them with
the group members. They can be shared online or through the cloud. Considering that
minutes and other types of documents can entail a lot of paperwork, it may be
preferable to use a paperless sharing approach.

Example: If the minutes recorder was documenting the minutes using Microsoft Word,
which does not offer online sharing, then they might consider using Google docs, which
offers a way of sharing documents online with other users.

The recorder is also supposed to save a copy of the meeting minutes for future
reference. Most companies store their minutes online – either in Google Docs or
OneDrive.