You may be a business owner or manager and you need professional minutes for the upcoming meeting next week. You may have asked your personal assistant or another individual from your admin team to handle it. Taking minutes is easy, right? Think again.
It may seem like a simple task to have proper minutes created and documented by a member of staff. But, unless that staff member has the experience, skills or qualifications to take minutes, chances are you’re going to be left with meeting minutes that just won’t cut it.
Taking minutes for a meeting is hard
As mentioned, it may seem like an easy task. You may think it’s a matter of writing down who is in attendance, what was said, who is responsible for a task and what will happen after the meeting is over. The truth is, minutes for a meeting are more than that.
Legal issues and minutes
In order for the minutes to be useful, they need to include a number of aspects for legal reasons. If anything were to arise in the future from a legal standpoint, your minutes are your main source of proof of any discussions and motions that were approved and acted upon. Your minutes are considered legal documents by auditors and the court system. If your minutes aren’t documented correctly and something that was mentioned in a meeting isn’t listed, according to the minutes it never happened.
Minutes are helpful for your workplace
Minutes are a good way to measure the success of your business or company. They can keep your staff members on track, help people understand their responsibilities and can ensure your future meetings run smoothly in accordance with what was discussed at the previous meeting. Without properly documented minutes, your future meetings can be harder to organise and have less structure.
It can be difficult to know what to write in the minutes (and what to leave out)
If you’re asking a staff member to write the minutes of a meeting and they have little to no experience, chances are they may not know what will need to be addressed and what needs to be left out. Something as simple as bias in the minutes can cause errors. Minutes need to have all the right information that is relevant to the meeting, such as attendees and important decisions that were made. Minutes do not include events such as a comment made by a person that was snarky to another person. When you ask a person from within your company to write minutes, there is a good chance the minutes can be written in a biased manner. This is a good reason to outsource your minute-taking duties to an independent business where there is no bias involved.
Relying on one person for a meeting might not be ideal
If you have one person within your organisation who is in charge of taking the minutes, they have little experience and have no qualifications in minute-taking, this may not be an ideal situation. For example, what would happen if that person was sick or on holiday the next time you have a meeting? Who else is available to complete the minutes of your meeting? Will they take minutes better or worse than your current person? Your organisation has staff who are already busy with other tasks in the workplace. Whether they’re too busy or not in attendance, having access to an outside source who can take your minutes for your business is crucial. Not only can you ensure that your business continues running, even when your staff are busy or unwell, but you can count on an independent minute-taker to be available for your meeting and they have the experience and skills to get the job done right.
Whether you’re running a large corporation or a small, not-for-profit organisation, having accurate and professional minutes is important to ensuring everything runs smoothly and without a hitch. Instead of putting the responsibility on a member of staff who may not be comfortable doing it, consider hiring an independent minute-taker to handle your minutes. With the skills and experience to handle your meetings, you can receive professional results every time.
Contact Meetings Into Minutes today to discuss your meeting needs.
