A Few Tips On Minute Taking

There are times in all our lives when we happily volunteer our services in order to help a cause. In the church hall this may be as a jumble sale assistant, on the football field it may be as a stand-in linesman and at a meeting it may be as a minute taker. On the face of it these are all jobs that can be performed to an acceptable standard by the virtual layman with a basic knowledge of the subject. As far as minute taking goes, however, it is not a task to be taken on lightly with a smile and a cry of 'go on then, I'll give it a bash'.

The novice minute taker can be hopelessly unprepared, sitting pen in hand with a blank notepad and a bucketful of enthusiasm. They may begin satisfactorily, but their lack of preparation will soon become evident. It may be that the meeting goes off topic and they are sidetracked, only momentarily but enough to cause them to fall behind. The meeting cannot be halted in order to repeat what has already been said, so they must play a frantic game of catch-up. Using an increasingly desperate thought-up-on-the-spot form of shorthand and making mental notes to help them remember what each abbreviation means, they wonder why they volunteered for the job in the first place. By the end of the meeting there are so many of these abbreviations and squiggles that the meanings of some of them have become forgotten and typing up the minutes is a time consuming chore. In short, taking minutes has ended up taking hours.

The key to effective minute taking is sound preparation. Information on every essential element of the meeting should be collected in advance and written down or printed off. Details such as the purpose of the meeting, the date, time and venue, who is chairing the meeting and a list of expected attendees, should all be noted in advance. It is less distracting to cross an absentee off a list than to add a name every time someone arrives. With all of the preparation done, the minute taker can then concentrate 100% on what is said at the meeting.

In writing down the minutes, the person taking them should ideally sit next to the chairperson. Items should be written down in the order they are discussed, even if this differs from that of the agenda. A record should be made of the motions that are made at the meeting and the names of those who made them, as well as the outcome of any votes.

When typing up the minutes, the text should not include every tiny detail of what was said, but a summary of the main points. Mrs. Smith saying that she will apply for a funding application pack is relevant information that should be included, but Mr. Jones's comment that he is 'gasping for a cig' is a detail that is surplus to requirements. The minutes should be transcribed soon after the meeting has taken place while they are still fresh in the memory and they should be written up concisely and accurately, from an entirely objective viewpoint.

A useful aid for minute takers is the printed template. Microsoft offers a selection of such templates, including a Formal Meeting template for Word 97 or later. You can download it at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT101172601033.aspx.

However, if there is one five-star solid gold tip to be given on minute taking, it is this: make a sound recording of the meeting. If you back up your written notes with a tape recording then you can check them against what was said, while at the same time jogging your memory as to the translation of that unique shorthand you invented.

There is a lot more to taking minutes than I have the space to discuss in this article. Issues such as the difference between open and closed meetings and the procedures for proposing motions and taking votes are some of the areas that a prospective minute taker would need to familiarise themselves with, possibly through a training course. A good minute taker is an asset to any organization and such skills are a distinct feather in the cap at job interviews, so maybe you should take a minute to consider enrolling.