‘…who’s making the notes today?’

Uttered as invitees settle themselves in the room, the inevitable nervous shuffling of papers and avoidance of eye contact that follows signals that nobody really wants to be responsible for making and circulating these notes but they are important.

Without minutes a meeting remains unrecorded, people forget what was said, what actions were agreed and everybody ends up having to meet once again to go over what was already covered!

Now…whether the meeting is really necessary is another topic all together but, for the purpose of this post we’ll assume that an agenda has been circulated, the collection of individuals that have gathered are prepared and there for good reason and what is about to be discussed has a point.

So what does the nominated scribe need to be capture?

Most important of all are decisions that were made, who agreed to action them, and by what date. If all you capture are these three things you are well on your way to getting more out of your meetings. Also include details of any follow-up meetings, when they’re scheduled for and what is expected to have been done before then.

The ‘nice to haves’ at the start of the minutes are general housekeeping bits and pieces. Whereabouts was the meeting? Who attended and, perhaps more useful, who wasn’t able to make it. Whilst not crucial, these little nuggets will help jog memories should you ever revisit the minutes in the future.

It’s also useful to attach as appendices (or more likely provide links) to any documents that were discussed during the meeting – recapping discussions around charts and figures is particularly difficult without the data in front of you.

As to how you capture all of this? I tend to scribble notes during the meeting, highlighting actions with symbols. Once the meeting has concluded I’ll edit where appropriate within the next few hours and ensure it’s sent out as soon as possible so that those in attendance can be reminded of actions assigned to them and those that couldn’t make it are kept informed.

Of course, all of this may well appear obvious but it amazes me how few people actually record and circulate useful minutes. It’s worth doing properly, and once you get into the habit it genuinely does become second nature.

You never know, you might start volunteering to be the regular minute-taker…