Guidelines for taking minutes

Hi, i've been asked by my boss to come up with some steadfast guidelines for effective minute taking at meetings. I've done the obvious and googled this but I haven't found any really reputable sites. Can anyone help? Thanks a million.

Have you searched this site?

I would tend to draft minutes around the agenda.

Do you mean AAM? I haven't but I will do. My boss is looking for guidelines to avoid people rambling!

Philip,

This previous AAM thread Information on running effective meetings might help.

I think you mean having a strict agenda rather than minutes.

Hi all, thanks for the reply - sorry, I should have been more concise. My boss is keen to stop people rambling when they're reading out the minutes of the previous meeting. The minutes that are being kept at the moment go on for ages and take up valuable meeting time. We're looking for guidelines that would give us some advice on taking effective minutes - e.g. being concise, when to name people directly etc. I've a rough idea myself but I'd prefer to have a few reputable sources to cite. Thanks very much for all your help.

Regardless of the previous minuting style, minutes are a record of the topic discussed and the decision taken. Nothing more, unless the chairman specifically requests that something be explicitly minuted or someone requests (and the chair approves) reading something into the minutes e.g. a personal statement. It is not necessary to record the to and fro of the discussion, still less who says what. It helps if the agenda is tightly-focussed, ideally a question e.g.
not "Photocopying" but "Should we limit individual photocopying?"

Assuming the usual discussion (down to effective chairing and whether those present have had a chance to consider the topic beforehand) this is recorded as:

Item 4: "Should we limit individual protocopying?"
The meeting decided to limit photocopying to xxxx. This will be implemented by XXX and monitored by YYYY

or

the meeting decided to continue this subject at next meeting..

or

whatever.

Minutes from previous meetings should be circulated prior to the next scheduled meeting along with the agenda. Attendees read these BEFORE Meeting. Chairman asks "can we adopt minutes from last meeting?" and unless anyone has issues/spots inaccuracies they are adopted. Alastair's example is spot on.....

What you are really looking for is guidance on how to run effective business meetings.

Try googling for 'effective business meetings' and you will get plenty of hits.

aj

Make sure you note all agreed actions, with a designated owner & completion date, and review progress against these at the next meeting.