More than being a time for members of a team or an organization to get together and promote the value of teamwork and collaboration, meetings are also a time for weighty agendas and crucial decisions. It’s when the need for the power of many comes and gathers together to build plans and hear each other’s input on various topics. This is why taking the meeting minutes is an important part of this occasion. It preserves the ideas of the session and keeps it as a reminder and useful resource in the future.
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13. Sample Minute Takers Guide
What is Minute-Taking?
Minute-taking is simply the act of recording the meeting minutes during a session. The minutes of a meeting refers to the comprehensive details of all agenda, points, actions, assignments, and decisions that transpired during a discussion. It serves as an official report of what happened during that event.
Why Record the Minutes of a Meeting
According to Indeed, according to the basic uses of a meeting minute is that it serves a guide for absent participants, so they’ll know what it’s all about when they failed to attend the session. It also helps them remind those involved in the action plans and provide them with the key points that they need to keep in mind.
Suppose, if everyone concerned in the discussion is present in the session and is writing notes from the presentation as a personal copy, why make an effort to record it? Why is it still useful? Here are some reasons why it’s important to record a meeting, even under this circumstance:
1. It keeps a record of absentees. Among the important parts of the meeting minutes are its records of participants that took the time to sign the attendance sheet and show up for the session. It’s easy to know who has been regularly skipping meetings.
2. It’s a reliable source of reference. Having a great memory is rare among a wide population. Only very few members of an organization can fully remember the points of the meeting. The meeting minutes distributed to them makes it easier to recall the discussion and make it a reference in the future.
3. It helps give a solution to meeting schedule challenges. Not everyone is going to be available for a certain meeting schedule. With a complete meeting minutes copy, those who weren’t able to make it to the discussion will have complete information about what happened.
Four Effective Tips on How to Take the Minutes of a Meeting
Here are six efficient steps to help you take meeting minutes better:
1. Be Prepared
With exception to surprise meetings that have no structured meeting agenda, prepare for the meeting beforehand. When you’ve received the topic list or the discussion materials, review and familiarize the content. This makes it easier for you to take notes during the meeting because you already have an idea of what flow is like. You’ll also be able to focus on details presented on the session and on how they relate to the material you’ve already reviewed.
2. Stick to the Facts
When taking meeting minutes, you need only to include what’s necessary and what you need to preserve as documentation. In most cases, these important details are labelled as facts. Your notes should have the discussion’s main points, the team’s agreed decision, the next plans, and other important matters. Never include your personal opinion about the topics everyone’s point of view. You don’t also need to include details about anyone’s disagreements during the session.
3. Clarify Vague Points
Your meeting minutes should contain not only accurate information during the meeting but also a clear description of each detail. Because your meeting summary will become a valuable source of data and reference, it’s only right that you spell out details in a manner that makes it easy to interpret. When you encounter ambiguous statements or puzzling points during a discussion, call for clarification. This will not only benefit you as the minute-taker, but it might also answer the same questions that ha been confusing the rest of the crowd.
4. Use an Outline
This will make your task a lot easier. Instead of merely taking down notes as they come, record the meeting flow by having an outline. This helps you understand how the different points and plans connect. This also helps you present your meeting report cohesively because not only have you captured the detail but you were also able to include the flow and how they come together. You can also use minutes of a meeting template that has all the sections you need to help you takes notes of the session in a well-organized manner.
FAQs
What are some methods by which you can record a meeting?
The different methods that you can use to record a meeting are:
- A classic paper and pen notes
- Using a laptop
- Conference call recording
- Videotaping
- Visibly taking and showing notes
What are some things that should be in your meeting minutes?
Here are some things that you should never include in a meeting minutes:
- Personal opinion
- Judgemental comments
- The word for word statements of a speaker
What are the different types of meeting agendas?
According to Bizfluent, the different types of meeting agendas are formal agenda, informal agenda, prioritized agenda, and timed agenda.
Taking the minutes of the meeting is an important part of any discussion. No matter how engaging the discussion might, you will both retain and miss important information. The minutes ensures that none of the significant details is lost in anyone’s memory. Browse through our meeting minutes template options, pick what suits you the best, and download now!
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