Why do we record the minutes of the business meetings and what needs to be in the minutes?

WHY?

·                    Minutes provide a permanent record

·                    Minutes provide a reference to check commitments

·                    Minutes provide a record of results for those who were (or were not) at the meeting

·                    Minutes are critical to an organization because they become the official written record of the meeting.

·                    They are the only objective, verifiable record of what occurred. 

Therefore, they must be complete, clear, and understandable. 

WHAT? 

·                    Essential items, such as, name of organization, type of meeting (i.e., monthly business, special, annual), date and time, place of meeting, attendees

·                    Approval of previous minutes (as presented or as corrected)

·                    Financial report (placed on file for audit)

·                    Maker of a motion (or amendment), motion seconded and status of the motion (carried or failed)

(not necessary to record seconder)

·                    Not necessary to record every comment. Concentrate on getting the gist of the discussion and taking enough notes to summarize the discussion.

·                    Don’t wait too long to write up the minutes – details slip away quickly.

·                    Be concise and consistent.  Minutes should be clear enough so that anyone could pick them up, having not been at the meeting, and know exactly what decisions were made, what discussion there was, and even who was there.

I realize some of this seems elementary, but we as BPW members tend to ask new members or others to take minutes when the Recording Secretary is absent and that may not be the long suit of those members.  Help everyone out by having a format to follow and some reminders about the importance of recording the transactions accurately and consistently. 

It always helps to prepare a format to use so that nothing is omitted.  Consider one something like this: