What Are Meeting Minutes? The Role of Meeting Minutes

Have you ever wondered, "What are meeting minutes?" and "What role do meeting minutes play?" Meeting minutes is a phrase familiar to many because it represents a document that records essential discussions, decisions, and agreements made during a meeting.

Meeting minutes play a crucial role in ensuring efficiency, transparency, and accountability among stakeholders in an organization or project. In this article, Aniday will introduce the concept, role, writing style, and purpose of meeting minutes.

The definition of Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes are an official type of document created after each meeting to record necessary information such as the time, location, attendees, discussion content, outcomes achieved, the action plan going forward, and outstanding issues to be addressed. It also includes comments from participants.

Furthermore, meeting minutes must be carefully stored and distributed to relevant parties, serving as a basis for monitoring, reviewing, and evaluating work progress.

The Role of Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes serve various critical roles in managing and operating an organization, project, or activity. Some key roles of meeting minutes include:

• Acting as an effective communication tool among stakeholders in an organization, project, or activity.
• Informing everyone about the meeting's discussions, decisions, agreements, as well as the tasks and responsibilities assigned to individuals or groups.
• Serving as historical archives and reference materials for subsequent meetings, preserving valuable information throughout the operation of an organization, project, or activity.
• Facilitating the comparison, checking, and evaluation of work progress and addressing whether problems have been resolved.
• Serving as evidence and legal documentation of decisions and agreements made during the meeting.
• Reconfirming the commitments, requirements, and expectations of stakeholders.
• Resolving disputes or conflicts that may arise in the future.

How to Write Meeting Minutes

Writing meeting minutes is not a simple task; it requires the writer to have the skills to take rapid notes, synthesize information logically, and present it clearly. Here are some steps to follow when writing meeting minutes:

Prepare a Meeting Minutes Template

Create a template before the meeting, including details such as the title, numerical order, date, location, start and end times, host, secretary, attendees, main content, results, and action plans. You can use supporting software or applications for quick and convenient template creation.

Type and Take Notes

During the meeting, type or record important content discussed, decided, and agreed upon. Use a predetermined structure for note-taking, and employ symbols or abbreviations to save time. Record comments, questions, or feedback from stakeholders.

Take Notes of Main Content

After the meeting concludes, record the main contents of the meeting minutes. Clearly state objectives, meeting content, results, agreements, assigned tasks, outstanding issues, stakeholder comments, feedback, and follow-up action plans with deadlines.

Ensure Accuracy of Content

Before finalizing the meeting minutes, carefully review the content for language, spelling, clarity, logic, relevance, objectivity, completeness, and compliance with regulations and document standards. Consider seeking the opinion of the chairperson or an authorized person to confirm the content.

Purpose of Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes are more than just records of a meeting's occurrences; they serve as effective management and administration tools. Some main purposes of meeting minutes include:

• Informing relevant parties about the meeting's content, decisions, and outcomes.
• Reminding team members of their responsibilities and post-meeting actions.
• Monitoring and evaluating work progress and results.
• Preserving and disseminating information, knowledge, and experience for future reference.

Meeting Minutes Samples

To better understand how to present meeting minutes, you can refer to the following samples:

Meeting minutes template. Source: ACC Law

Sample shareholder meeting minutes. Source: Bvote

Meeting minutes are vital documents in group work processes. They record the content, opinions, decisions, and results of a meeting, serving as tools for communication, control, prevention, storage, and dissemination of information.

To write effective meeting minutes, follow these steps: prepare a minutes template, type notes, record content, summarize key points, and ensure content accuracy. Moreover, remember that the purpose of meeting minutes is to inform, remind, monitor, store, and convey information.

Aniday hopes that with the information shared in this article, you will be able to write meeting minutes effectively and professionally.