MINUTES OF MEETING AND SAMPLE

MINUTES OF A MEETING

Minutes is a summarized record or written summary of the points discussed at a meeting, that is, an official written message.

Here are some tips in writing effective meeting minutes.

1.      Know the purpose – Before writing minutes, you must know the purpose of it. First, a report of meeting minutes is a record. But it is just not the type of record you write, print out, file and then forever forget. It provides a historical account of official business and operational decisions, and involvement of people making the decisions. It is used as a reference which is periodically, or frequently referred to. Sometimes, minutes of meeting can become a legal document and evidence in court.

2.      Keep it concise – Keep the key information in order and make sure you don’t miss critical info. You only have certain limited time and it will be impossible to write every single thing discussed during a meeting. So, keep it concise, i.e. compact and short. Take notes of the issues discussed, major points raised and decisions taken. Make sure what you write will be easily understood, and usable in the future. Keep in mind many of the meetings require the attendees looking back at the previous meeting’s minutes. So if people can’t read them, it will amount to a waste of time.

3.      Get the right info and follow the right format – To keep it short, here are list information that should be in your minutes of meeting: Time, date and venue of meeting; List of attendance (and their position); Agenda of meeting – key agenda, details, and specific action plan, and owner/executor of the plan; and the name of person taking minutes.

4.      Keep a record – Normally, after minutes are hand-written, they are transferred into a proper computerized document (e.g. Microsoft Word or Excel), properly restructured, save and printed out. Good and fast typists can immediately record conversation into the computer/laptop, where this requires less time for fine tuning later on. The minutes are then distributed among the attendees of the meeting, or those who will be responsible to take actions as regards to what is discussed during the meeting.

It should be noted that minutes are not verbatim of what transpired at a meeting but abstracts of a meeting, therefore, there should be no verbosity, and obiter dictums should be avoided.

The basic contents of minutes are:

1.      Date

2.      Type of meeting

3.      Venue of the meeting

4.      Attendance at the meeting

5.      Agenda of the meeting

6.      Any other business (A. O. B) that is not included in the agenda.

7.      Closing.

The drafting rules of minutes are –

1.      It should be a simple language

2.      It should be clear

3.      It should be precise

4.      It should be proof-read.

As for the format, there is no school of thought that says there is this or that specific format that you need to follow. What you need is a simple and user friendly format. You can follow the following format:

SAMPLE OF MINUTES OF MEETING

Company         :           Forsell Consultant

Date                :           08 January 2010

Time                :           10am to 12am

Venue              :           Command Center, Forsell HQ

Attendees       :

1.    John McClane             :           Branch Manager 

2.    Jacklynn Victor           :           Principal Consultant

3.    Luke Jane                    :           Senior Consultant 

4.    Salamon Selamat         :           Field Consultant

5.    Bijalo Bijalo                :           Senior Marketing Executive

6.    Mimz Mimz                 :           Operations Executive

Agenda:

1. Proposal to organize Career Talk in Polite Johor
2. New recruitment drive and strategy
3. General (other) discussion

1.         Proposal to organize Career Talk in Polite Johor

This is an initial discussion to follow up on Polite Johor's invitation for Forsell Consultant to hold a Career Talk in their college for graduating students in Diploma and Certificate. On Monday, the Dean of Polite Johor contacted Forsell's office and has asked Forsell for event proposal (RFP).

a)      Event structure – 2-day event to be held on weekend. Actual dates TBA and to be decided by event committee. Possibility to extend other students and graduates from other schools and tertiary institutions.

b)      Formation of Secretariat – Bijalo elected as Event Director, and to be assisted by Mimz as assistant. Bijalo and Mimz to appoint committee members and announce in 2 days. =Committee to have first meeting in 3 days. Other meeting attendees to leverage assistance and brainwash ideas.

c)      Sub-events – 8 events have been suggested, 4 have been agreed - Resume Workshop, Presentation from a MNC's representative, Motivation Talk, Exhibition. Mimz and committee to present to the management details of event proposal. Upon all agreement, committee is to hold progress meeting once a week until the event takes place.

2.         New recruitment drive

Company's expansion has resulted the need for additional staff and consultants. Discussion was aimed to draw strategy for attracting new personnel and talents.

a)      Issue and scenario – Bijalo suggested Jane to implement new strategy and plan to capture new talents in the company. According to Mimz, existing strategy is not bearing fruit and not meeting expectation. Salamon and Siti endorsed Bijalo's suggestion.

b)      Brainstorming new strategy – 10 new strategies are brain stormed, 3 were agreed upon. The 3 are:

1. Going TV – Bijalo to check the pricing and process with a number of TV stations
2. Radio Advert – Victor to check pricing and process with a number of radio 
3. Internet Banner Advertising – Mimz to discuss with a few internet ads companies and shortlist a minimum of 3 advertisers.

c)      New hires training and competency – All agreed current training program for new hires is not effective due to short duration (2 days). Unanimous decisions agreed on 2 principles:

i.              Training period to be extended to 1 week

ii.            Last 2 days of training is to be conducted by external consultant. A mini meeting to be scheduled in discussing the consultant's appointment

3.         General discussion - For any other issues raised (A.O.B)

a)      Flexible working hours – Salamon raised suggestion for company to allow flexible working hours by employees. Reason: different staff performs their best at different time. Mimz & Bijalo disapproved but the rest said the idea should be accepted as a possible implementation. Mimz to raise the issue to the country management and discuss.

b)      Hospital visit – As one of the staff, Rihanna, Staff Manager is hospitalized, a visit has been agreed which is 10 January 2010.

Meeting was adjourned at 12am. Next meeting is scheduled a week from now, that is, 15 January 2010, same venue and time. All owners of designated actions are to present their feedback.

Minutes prepared by:

Signature ­______________

        Luke Jane

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