Form with which the board of directors of a corporation records the contents of its first meeting.
Form with which the board of directors of a corporation records the contents of its first meeting.
Keep a basic record of what went on during the meeting. For example: who gave a presentation, did a “discussion ensue,” were “questions asked and answered?” But avoid recording everything.
Include the date and time of the meeting. List all the meeting attendees as well as those who were invited but could not attend. Use the meeting agenda as the outline for the minutes. Use the same naming convention for all minutes files and, if possible, store them in a designated folder so they can be easily located.
In summary Taking the minutes at a meeting involves proper documentation and at a board meeting, is one of the duties performed by a company secretary.
Are board meeting minutes confidential? Yes. The board should assume the minutes are confidential and, in most cases, they will remain so.
Finalized board meeting minutes must be distributed to all directors and shareholders, regardless of their attendance at the meeting. The board chairman must approve the minutes before distribution, ensuring the document reflects an accurate and concise record of the meeting.
Robert's Rules (Section -16) state that “the minutes should contain mainly a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said by the members.” Minutes are not transcripts of meetings; rather, the document contains a record of actions taken by the body, organized by the meeting's order of business (agenda).
Minutes are not supposed to be verbatim and including too much detail may only provide ammunition that may be used against the board in a lawsuit. However, with too little detail the minutes may be useless and may leave an impression that the board did not adequately consider one or more matters.
Minutes should never be a verbatim documentation of every statement made during a board meeting. A document that purports to record every uttered word is a transcript, not “minutes.” Minutes should be concise and informative, but never voluminous.
What Should Be Included in Meeting Minutes? Date and time of the meeting. Names of the meeting participants and those unable to attend (e.g., “regrets”) Acceptance or corrections/amendments to previous meeting minutes. Decisions made about each agenda item, for example: Actions taken or agreed to be taken. Next steps.
There are three standard styles of minutes: action, discussion, and verbatim. Each style has a specific use. Action minutes record the decisions reached and the actions to be taken, though not recording the discussion that went into making the decisions. This is the most common form of minutes used.