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Minutes:
what to record/what to ignore
A woman
in Florida asked, “Not receiving proper training, I’ve
been resorting to recording verbatim minutes which can take
hours, sometimes days. I’ve come to realize this is
unnecessary and impractical….When there is a discussion,
do I need to include who is commenting on what?”
This is
a very good question – and a common one. In my experience,
many minutes are just too long. Committee members don’t
have time to read them. But what do you cut out? There are
no hard or fast rules here, and there is no template that
will fit every meeting.
My starting
point is the purpose of minutes. Minutes are to be a communications
tool for people who were not present, a history for the group,
and a mechanism to assign and check on future actions.
Therefore,
for the most part, few organizations require verbatim transcripts
of a meeting. (There are exceptions, e.g., legal proceedings,
union negotiations.)
When I
conduct a minute taking workshop, my overall advice is to
record a point only once. Do not belabour arguments and do
not record names unless:
- Someone
asks to have their own or someone else’s name included
for s specific purpose.
- A
person has been assigned a task.
- Your
group’s chosen parliamentary rules require it with
a motion.
- The
name is needed for the history of the group.
- It
is to list who was present.
He said/she
said dialogue and repetitive arguments or discussion are not
needed.
The minute taker’s role is to provide a summary of what
occurred at the meeting – not a regurgitation.
My book,
The Minute Taker’s Handbook, provides more
information for note takers. It is available at www.csae.com
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