Form with which the stockholders of a corporation record the contents of their annual meeting.
Form with which the stockholders of a corporation record the contents of their annual meeting.
Who is responsible for taking minutes for a meeting? The corporate secretary generally takes notes and prepares meeting minutes. If there is no specific role for this in your company, the job should rotate between people who know how to take notes for a meeting.
All Meetings and minutes should follow Robert's Rules. Minutes should start with the attendance and continue through the motion to close the meeting (opening and closing of the meeting should have times attached.) Each topic that is discussed should have a brief paragraph summarizing what was discussed.
What do the minutes contain? Time, date and place of meeting. List of people attending. List of absent members of the group. Approval of the previous meeting's minutes, and any matters arising from those minutes. For each item in the agenda, a record of the principal points discussed and decisions taken.
The minutes of a meeting should be written in the third person. It is important to write the date, time, and location of the meeting at the top of each page. The meeting should start with a summary of what was discussed and then be followed by a list of all decisions made.
Meeting minutes should be distributed promptly after the meeting, ideally within 24 to 48 hours. Timely distribution ensures that participants have a fresh understanding of discussions, decisions, and action items.
Multiple company secretaries have also told us that, as a rule of thumb, they spend four hours writing minutes for every hour of meeting time. This isn't surprising when you consider that the transcript of an hour's worth of conversation can reach 10,000 words and 20 pages of A4.
Taking minutes is a hard process that requires great attention to detail. A better practice is often to record your meetings and then get the minutes professionally transcribed by a dedicated transcription service.
If the minutes contain action then they MUST be distributed within a few days of the meeting so that the action can begin. Some minute takers keep a separate document listing the action and this is a good practice.
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).
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.