As promised, today's post is about minute taking. 

Of course if you have good shorthand skills you can take the minutes verbatim, but few of us have these skills today.  An alternative is recording the meeting, but some people feel uncomfortable about being recorded, and in fact in the long run it can lead to a much longer spell at the computer transcribing.  If you feel a bit nervous and can arrange to get the equipment you might want to tape the meeting as a back up, but I would advise that you get used to taking effective notes.  You will be developing a skill that does not rely on technology which is always useful.

The obvious thing to remember is a selection of pens and plenty of paper.  I have seen people take minutes using a laptop, but I found the clicking on the keys a bit annoying, so I would not recommend that method, except perhaps with a techie group who will like the fact that you are using IT!  Make sure you have a couple of spare pens in your bag.

Now, where do you sit? I would tend to sit next to the person chairing the meeting, that way they can whisper in your ear if they need to.  If the chair or main speaker is at the front of the room facing the group, then taking a seat in the front but at the edge is probably best.  That way you can be handy should you be needed to support the speaker, but not in full view.  If there is a risk that you might be called out of the room to deal with a problem or call, sit in the back row so that you don't disturb people if you have to move.

So long as there are not too many people, I would draw yourself a map of the names of the participants, where they sit and their initials (or you could give them nicknames like 'dopey' 'sleepy' 'scary man').  You can quickly refer to it when noting what they say.  When transcribing your notes later you may find the map helps you visualise exactly who was speaking at a particular point.  You may prefer to pass around a piece of paper and ask people to enter their names.  You can use the order of the list as a reminder of which order people were sitting in (assuming people don't come in late and mess up the order!).  Make a note of the 'apologies' i.e the people who couldn't make it this time.

You don't necessarily need to take down every single word, instead put down key words that give a sense of the content.  For example, say a speaker called John Smith says 'the company needs to look to the future and learn from the past', you can write 'JS:  co look to future learn from past'.  You will actually be able to read most words by just writing down the consonants.  Transcribe this phrase for me:

Ply n th prk wth a bll (if you are struggling try speaking it out loud)

Did you get 'play in the park with a ball'?  You may struggle with this because you do not know the context of the sentence, but if you did, and you were at the meeting you would find the technique fairly easy.  Practice while you are watching TV.  Transcribe an announcer using only consonants, then go back and see if you can understand your notes.  Hopefully you will find it fairly easy even if you do need a bit of practice to get your speed up.  I would encourage you to develop your own short forms for special words.  You may work in a business that deals with photography, so you can shorten it to Phy if that makes sense to you.

Don't put any opinion or reflection into the minutes.  Yours is a record of the events of a meeting not sales document.  Keep the language fairly formal, even if the meeting was not. 

You may find it useful to see some previous minutes to get an idea of the level of detail expected.  More and more these days I find that minutes are often only a brief précis or summary of what has been said, rather than a word for word transcription.  You may only need to put a summary and any action points on the right hand side (often in bold so they stand out).  Previous minutes will give you an idea of how to lay it out and what numbering format to use.

Now for transcription.  I will talk about transcribing dictation another time, but today I'm talking about transcribing your own notes.  I personally find I need to transcribe very shortly after the meeting, certainly within a day or two.  It is astonishing what one can recall if you do it quickly, and equally amazing how quickly you can forget it all a week later.  Don't be shy about approaching someone else who attended if you are unclear about what has been said.  Best to get it right first off.  Most meetings begin with a review of the previous minutes so errors may be picked up at the next meeting, but I wouldn't rely on it.  

Minutes are usually sent out with the agenda of the next meeting, often ahead of time, but not always.  You will get any corrections back after the next meeting and then the minutes are called 'confirmed' and published where appropriate.  Before they are confirmed they would usually be considered draft and possibly confidential.

Usually you start an agenda with apologies (those who could not attend) and previous minutes, followed by the agenda items, and ending with AOB (any other business), and the date of the next meeting if known.

Here is link to a great summary of how to take minutes with some sample minutes at the back of the document:  Taking minutes

I hope that covers all you need to know.  Post a comment if you can think of something I have missed.

I have been asked to set up and manage a meeting, including taking the minutes.  This is a new task for me.  Can you advise? 

OK, I’ll break this question into two parts, covering the pre-meeting tasks today, following up with minute taking and post-meeting tasks tomorrow.

The job of arranging meetings is loathed by some people and loved by others.  It takes good organisation skills and often a lot of patience, but once completed you get a great sense of achievement.  Imagine yourself as an events manager.  You have to plan tasks in a particular order with the meeting being the event at the end.  There is even an audience!  Organising meetings well is very important and developing your skills in this area adds a valued skill to your CV.  

Right, here we go..... I’ll put the tasks in the order you would do them.

If the date has already been set this is pretty straightforward because you just go ahead, book the room and invite the attendees and that’s pretty much it.  However often you are asked to organise a meeting and find a date that as many people as possible can attend.  In this case contact the key person who absolutely must attend and get a selection of dates, say 4 or 5.  Ask them to pencil the dates into their diary (or put them on their online calendar).  Ideally you will be able to use Outlook or a similar programme to help you, and I will do a post about this next month, but for now I will assume that for whatever reason you have to do it manually.  Arrange a grid with names down one side and dates across the top (you can do this on a spreadsheet).  Contact all the potential attendees and ask them which of the dates they are available.  You can then pick the day that has the most ticks, allowing for attendance of any essential people. 

One tool I have seen that is very effective and easy to use is Doodle: http://www.doodle.com Most people have internet access these days and you should be able to get responses from most people if not all. Chances are you will still need to use the old fashioned telephone for one or two!

Next you have to find a venue.  Things to think about are cost (if that is an issue), parking, ease of travel for visitors (for example rail links, airports), facilities for catering if required, access for disabled people, wi fi, nearby accommodation, and of course adequate room for the number of people attending the meeting (don’t forget to include yourself if you are minuting the meeting!).  Book and follow the procedures required by the provider. 

Now book any other services you need.  If catering is required it is worth checking what the venue can offer.  This means less work for you liaising between the venue and the caterer, and less room for slip ups.  So long as cost is not too high I would be inclined to choose the catering offered by the venue, assuming all other things are equal.  Do make sure that appropriate regular breaks are offered, or at the very least a quick comfort break if the meeting is planned to go over two hours. If a meal is being provided you will need to identify any delegate dietary requirements and pass these back to the caterer.Other services to consider are technical support for laptops and projectors (sometimes offered by venues), meet and greet and directing services if the route to the room is not clear, provision of flip charts and pens if not provided by the venue, services for disabled people, for example signing for deaf and hard of hearing people, and delivery of heavy items, or items that need to arrive during the event.  I think that is all, but if anyone can think of any more, please add it in a comment to this post.

This is a great link with a checklist for making sure your meetings are accessible for disabled people:  Arranging Meetings

Make sure that you confirm the meeting date, time and venue to all participants, and let them know if they are expected to bring anything with them.  Make sure that they are given pre-meeting tasks in plenty of time and send papers ahead of time so that they don’t need to spend time in the meeting reading.  If you have arranged the meeting some time ahead, you can confirm again a week before to be sure.  This can be a simple email to them or their PA, whichever you feel is the most appropriate.

You can go that extra mile and check travel updates on the day, road works, and local events to see if there is any possibility of disruption for the participants.  For example if the annual flower show is due to take place, warn them and offer an alternative route or recommend another form of transport. Good PA’s and secretarys will always double-check these things. 

Tomorrow’s post is about minuting meetings, and post-meeting tasks.  See you then!