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Minutes are a written record of a meeting. This seems simple enough, but there are many different ways that minutes can be written and this will largely depend upon the type of meeting. 

What are minutes?
Minutes can be, virtually, a verbatim account of a meeting, or just a brief one line (or even one word) account of a specific discussion or decision. There can hardly be any meeting which is actually a verbatim record. Hansard, the official record of the proceedings of the UK Parliament appears to report all speeches, interventions, questions, answers and recorded votes and the times of each. But even Hansard is not verbatim. Not only does it not reproduce the actual topic for discussion, other than as a heading, but neither does it always reproduce exactly what was said. A quick reading will show common abbreviations in use. For example the entry 'Hon. Members: Oh !' Often refers to a near riot in the chamber. It is a little known fact that MPs and peers often visit the Hansard offices to check and edit the account of their contributions. It is not at all infrequent for the entries to be changed, ostensibly to make them clearer and correct stumbles and verbal tics. But sometimes this approaches a corruption of what was actually said. A particular example would be Margaret Thatcher, who, as prime minister, staunchly tried to avoid using the phrase ‘poll tax’ instead of ‘community charge’. On one occasion, in the heat of debate she said “The poll ta… er… community charge’. Now it could be held that this represented an example of prime ministerial stress and that the anti-poll tax campaign was starting to get to her (unlikely perhaps, but it could be said). But you can search Hansard in vain for the verbatim account of that comment… it is not there.

So what types of minutes are there?
Minutes effectively divide into three types:

Detailed
Summarised
Notes
Detailed minutes are usually used when an official record of a meeting is required. This will be especially important when the meeting is of a statutory nature, such as a local authority committee, NHS trust board or health authority. Hansard is obviously an example but it is not usual to report, ‘verbatim’, every contribution made at the meeting. Normally the general gist of discussion is recorded together with the details of the topic being discussed, sometimes previous references and the decision made at the end. But from time to time, some members may ask for their specific comments to be recorded. This is usually the case where they disagree with the general discussion and especially when they think the course of action proposed might be illegal or ultra vires. It is for the chair of the meeting to decide whether or not this is permissible not the minute taker at the meeting. If you are taking the minutes just record the member’s comments and leave it to the chair to decide whether or not they are reported when he approves the draft (click link to below).

Don’t forget that detailed minutes are a formal record so they must contain sufficient information to demonstrate when the meeting was held, who was there, what was discussed, what supporting material was supplied, what was said and what the decision was. They can be used in evidence in court and once approved by the subsequent meeting they become an inviolable record.

Summarised minutes are quite similar, although less detail will be given of the discussion and they will often not go into detail about supporting information and previous references. This type of minute is used by NHS trust boards but not usually by local authorities or health authorities – although practice varies.

They are much more common as records of management or executive team meetings, joint consultation meetings and project or contract meetings.

Notes are literally that. They contain a beginning and an end but little or no middle. They are utilised for general frequent co-ordinative meetings and informal meetings.

An example of each type for the same topic of discussion is given below:

Detailed minute
No.123/99 ACQUISITION OF NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM
Submitted: The Report of the Chief Executive Agenda Paper E.
References: Minute numbers 87/99, 101/99 and 115/99 refer.
The chief executive outlined the content of his report to the meeting. He explained that the catastrophic failure of the current administrative computer system necessitated the urgent procurement of a replacement system. Various alternatives had been investigated and costed bids had been received from three suppliers, ABC Computers Ltd, XYZ Computers Ltd and Eezitype Computers plc. His report outlined the various costs and technical competencies of the three systems on offer. The central management team had considered these and was advising the board to agree to the purchase of the XYZ Computer system on the basis of their submitted bid. This bid was not the cheapest but as the XYZ system had a greater number of games supplied as standard the team felt it was reasonable to accept this bid.

The chair thanked the chief executive for his report and invited the views of board members. The chief executive was asked if the system proposed was Year 2000 compliant and he confirmed that it was. He was also asked to expand upon the other facilities apart from games which the system could provide.

Mr Cooper expressed severe misgivings at the procurement process adopted which he felt to be a breach of the board’s standing financial instructions. He asked for his comments to be minuted. Other board members felt that in the circumstances of urgency which pertained no other course of action was open to the board.

The chair then put the question to the meeting. Mr Cooper requested a recorded vote.

Those members voting in favour of adopting the procurement process outlined in the chief executive’s report were: Mrs JC Golightly, Mr T Johnson, Dr PQ Adder, Miss J Moore.

Those voting against were: Mr T Cooper.

Accordingly the proposal in the chief executive’s report was APPROVED.
ACTION: chief executive

Summary minute
No.123/99 ACQUISITION OF NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM
Submitted: The Report of the Chief Executive Agenda Paper E.
The chief executive outlined the content of his report to the meeting. The central management team was advising the board to agree to the purchase of the XYZ Computer system. The XYZ Computers bid was not the cheapest but as the system had a greater number of games supplied as standard the team felt it was reasonable to accept this bid.

The chief executive answered several questions from the floor.

Mr Cooper expressed severe misgivings at the procurement process adopted which he felt to be a breach of the board’s standing financial instructions. He asked for his comments to be minuted.

Those members voting in favour of adopting the procurement process outlined in the chief executive’s report were: Mrs JC Golightly, Mr T Johnson, Dr PQ Adder, Miss J Moore.

Those voting against were: Mr T Cooper.

Accordingly the proposal in the chief executive’s report was APPROVED.

ACTION: chief executive

Note
No.10: ACQUISITION OF NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM
The chief executive outlined the proposal to purchase the XYZ Computer System.

This was APPROVED.

So how do you take minutes?
Firstly some key concepts… you as notetaker are not in charge of the meeting, the chair is. You do not enter the debate (unless the meeting is informal and you are temporarily taking your turn as a member of the committee to take the minutes). You do not make up things that did not happen or were not said.

At formal meetings you should be presentable… ie dressed for the office rather than a Knebworth Concert. This might seem unduly prissy but if the members don’t like the look of you they might be minded not to like your minutes either.

Preparation: Preparation is 90 per cent of the game. If you have actually been responsible for producing and circulating the agenda and supporting papers then you will probably be well versed in the meeting’s subject matter. If not make sure you have a good set of all the papers to be discussed and make sure you have read them. If any papers are handed round at the meeting make sure you get a copy.

Have a good proof copy of the previous minutes for the chair to sign. If there is a minute book or file make sure you take it with you (if the meeting is formal or semi-formal there will always be a minutes book or file).

Make sure you know who is due to attend. Make sure you check with the chair and other relevant people in advance as to who has sent apologies.

Prepare note taking sheets. List on a blank sheet each agenda item with its appropriate agenda number.

When meetings attenders arrive found out the identity of each person you don’t know. Draw up a ‘people map’ of where everyone is sitting and what their name is (you won’t need to do this if you know everyone).

Prepare an attendance sheet. Ask everyone to sign as they come in. For formal meetings you might type this out in advance with all members names - even those who sent apologies, it’s surprising how often apologisers turn up or are merely late.

Make sure you are conversant with the protocols of the meeting. Is the chair addressed as chairman or what? Where members are named in minutes do they wish to appear as full names or initials? What is the Mrs/Miss/Ms protocol? Do frequently appearing phrases have initials or acronyms which are permissible? You won’t necessarily need to know all of this before the meeting but you will need to know it.

Make sure you have a plentiful supply of blank paper, or a notebook and pens and pencils.

And last but not least, make sure the refreshments have been ordered.

Attention: Self evidently you must pay attention once the meeting has begun. Get yourself seated and settled before the meeting commences. Make sure you are close to the chair or at least in their line of sight. If you genuinely do not hear something or miss someone’s name politely ask, through the chair, for it to be repeated.

Shorthand? Some minute takers can write incredibly fast but even so it will almost always be impossible to take full notes in longhand. If you know shorthand so much the better but if you don’t never fear, most minute takers don’t either. What you should do is develop your own form of shorthand note conventions. The easiest is just to refer to agenda item numbers not full text. ‘Ch’ for chair, initials for members, acronyms for official bodies or standing committees, ‘sd’ for ‘said’ etc. Accordingly your notes for the fictitious minute above might look like this….

No.123/99 s/Paper E r/87,101,115

CE outline rep. Arguments as per rep. Ch thks.
Is system y2k comp? CE yes. & expand other facs.
Cooper…misgivings. Breach SFIs, opposed MINUTE!!!
Others no prob.

Cooper RECORDED VOTE.

Yes JCG/TJ/PQA/JM No: TC
APP Act CE.

In the minute, most of the detail of the first half is in the chief executive’s report so why write it all out again? You should try to use the same initials and acronyms every time, after a few meetings they will become second nature.

Summarise: This is a skill you can’t learn without practice. One good exercise is to take a set of minutes at a meeting you attended and try to cut out every extraneous word to see if it affects the meaning. Then see if any whole paragraphs can go. If you have difficulty summarising as you go write up the minutes as fully as you can and then do this exercise on them. Use a dictionary and a thesaurus to avoid using the same word several times and to try to find words which describe a whole circumstance… it will shorten the finished article. On the other hand don’t make the minutes into a form of word game, keep the meaning clear, don’t dress it up unnecessarily.

Write-up: It is good practice to write up a draft of the minutes as soon as possible after the meeting so that it is still fresh in your mind. Don’t fall into the temptation of thinking you are too busy. You will be just as busy next week and might forget something crucial.

When you right a fair copy draught make sure you adopt the standard conventions with regard to font, spacing, headings, formats etc. If you don’t know what they are, then follow the the pattern in the previous set. Minutes should always be numbered and follow the protocol, don’t invent a new numbering system in mid-year. It is common for minutes to be numbered consecutively throughout the year, with the year also shown (as in the example above). Notes don’t always have to be done like this but it won’t do any harm. As to numbering of minutes, it is usually enough to number each minute heading but sometimes each paragraph will be numbered and/or each separate area of discussion within the same topic. This can get cumbersome, especially with sub-paragraphs and sub-sub-paragraphs. The author still has in his possesion a minute numbered 27/a/xviii/B/2/84.

Proofing: Read your draft minutes at least three times and correct spelling errors. This is considerably easier than it once was if you use a spellchecker but even they won’t spot the difference between told and fold or trick and something else… There will always be errors you miss. For example, there are four errors in the paragraph before this one… how many did you spot? (Right, draught, two ‘the’s and possesion). Get someone else to read your minutes to check them.BACK

When you are confident they are accurate send them to the chair for approval. Once that is received you can prepare your final version for the minute book and circulation.

Keep all rough notes until the minutes have been approved. If you use a notebook you may as well keep them forever, you never know when they’ll be required.

Final note: don’t forget to get the chair to sign them as a correct record when they are approved at the next meeting, if they don’t, legal disputes can arise.