It is impossible to recall everything every time. Keeping meeting minutes is thus a best practice for business meetings. Meeting minutes are vital records of your business's meetings. These notes document what happened in a meeting and serve as a reminder of decisions made or actions to be taken in the future.
Meeting minutes serve as a historical record of the main points of discussion at a meeting, as well as the decisions made. The minutes should cover the following details:
· The title of the meeting group
· The date, time, and location
· The names of those members present in the meeting (including staff) and the person taking the minutes
· The agenda.
Follow these tips to make the best use of your meeting minutes.
Do’s
Cover the meeting's date, time, and venue
Setting up the fundamentals comes first. The meeting's time, place, and date should all be noted.
Mention all the meeting members.
Take notes on every participant in the meeting, including the minute-taker. Don't forget to list the attendees who were unable to attend as well.
Note decisions, votes, or approvals made.
For future reference, make sure to keep a record of all decisions, votes, and approvals. In this manner, it will be easier to determine when and why a decision was made in the situation that there are any disagreements in the future.
Digitally save the meeting minutes.
There are many advantages to electronically archiving meeting minutes. It is smaller than physical copies, for one thing. Second, managing electronic archiving is easier. You could save a lot of labor hours and the associated costs if you had the ability to search through hundreds of previous meeting minutes. Additionally, keeping documents in the cloud is more secure than keeping physical copies.
Keep meeting minutes brief.
The purpose of keeping meeting minutes is to be able to look back and understand the main points of discussion and outcomes of the meeting. Be brief when taking meeting minutes. Summarize the main points as well as any decisions made in the meeting.
Note previous meeting minutes' amendments.
Note any changes or corrections to the previous meeting's minutes.
Don’ts
Do not write the meeting minutes by hand.
Handwriting meeting minutes need to use paper. Paper copies of minutes can be misplaced or even torn or destroyed. Because of this, meeting minutes must be stored digitally. Also poor handwriting can also result in not being able to read by the required parties.
Don't note any direct quotes or debates.
Minutes of meetings should be brief. Simply include the facts and summarise the main points as well as the outcomes of any decisions.
Don't wait too long to write.
You should immediately write the minutes when you still remember the whole meeting. You can forget the important meeting details if you wait too long. The ideal way is to take notes during the meeting and to write the minutes the same day.
Don't change the tenses.
It's crucial to be consistent. When writing your meeting minutes, stick to a single tense. Although the past tense is what we suggest, you are free to use the present tense instead.
Don't write any personal opinions.
While writing the meeting minutes, try to maintain objectivity. Personal judgments or comments about the meeting should not be included. Maintain a neutral tone all over the meeting minutes.
Final Words
Meeting minutes are essential records that keep your company on track and organized. To prevent any inconvenience in your meeting minutes, choose online interview transcription or virtual interview transcription companies like London Transcription to transcribe your meeting minutes!
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