Meeting Minutes – How to write meeting minutes.
Minutes for a company or also known as minutes of a meeting are official accounts of the discussion or decisions made during board meetings. Minutes of a meeting are usually taken during formal meetings when the stakeholders of the company are present. They are usually recorded by the company’s secretary or an individual that was formally appointed. It is essential to keep the minutes of your company as it serves the purpose of being the proof when you will be asked for approval of particular decisions and actions taken by the board. Minutes of a meeting are also sometimes relied upon by the company counsel to reinforce a legal opinion and they are essential in making certain business processes less troublesome.
Writing letters, reports, notes, among other things, are important skills for business and personal life. Effective letters will yield nothing but good results. Most often than not, people assess others by the quality of their writing, hence it’s essential to write well. Here are some simple tips in writing minutes for a company to get you started:
• Before the formal meeting, you should at least have a pre-planning process of how you will proceed to record the minutes. You could ask for the meeting agenda and use it as the backbone of the meeting minutes.
• The basic information you will need to record on the minutes are the date and time when the meeting was held, the names of the stakeholders or members that will be present at the meeting, corrections to previous meeting minutes and lastly, the decisions agreed on by the members and the actions taken.
• It is important to know that you don’t need to record all of what was discussed during the meeting, just make sure to include the basic yet important ones. If you’ll need to, you could consider recording the discussion.
• Edit and write the meeting minutes that shows clarity and that are easy to read by others. Remember to be objective and it is best to avoid using names if not necessary. Also it is preferable to write your minutes in the same tense all throughout.
Having a good business letter format or letter template as a guide can be very helpful. Download a free meeting minutes sample, then customize that will suit your needs. It is a great way to get you started in the right direction.
