Ever been to a meeting and wondered what the point was?

Many people say they are intimidated at being asked to take the minutes at meetings which are attended by senior management. Remember you have rights!

It is not acceptable for the chairperson to start the meeting without you being aware of who everyone is – you will end up in despair when it comes to writing the minutes if you are trying to decipher your notes which say the ‘guy in the red tie’ or the ‘lady with the sad hairstyle’!

Even if everyone else knows one another the chairperson should start with introductions even if just ‘for the benefit of the minute taker’. If this does not happen you need to raise it there and then.

Inevitably a lot of bluster and hot air happens at meetings, and often feelings are running high. After a ‘lively debate’ you might have difficulty in knowing what to record. A good chairperson will summarise for you, if not it may be appropriate to ask ‘how would you like me to record that in the minutes’.

If someone is quietly spoken and is sat at the far end of the room you might need to let the chair know you are having difficulty in capturing what is said. If side conversations are taking place and this is distracting you, an appealing look at the chairperson might prompt them to call for order.

As minute taker you should not normally be taking part in the debate (unless it is a team meeting) but supposing a discussion is going on and you have some expert knowledge or have come across the problem before – should you interject?

The other occasion you should feel totally comfortable with interrupting the meeting is to check your understanding of something. If something has been said which you need to record it is better to say it now than to wait until you come to write up the minutes.

Remember your role in the meeting is an important one, if the meeting minutes are not correct and have not recorded everything precisely then the likelihood of positive action as result of the meeting is greatly diminished.

Greg Tyndall of The Minute Taking Training Company is an expert on all aspects of minute taking and the arrangement and management of meetings. Greg has been helping individuals and organisations with their Minute Taking Training needs for over a decade now.

For lots useful tips and resources and to read Greg’s blog visit the Minute Taking Training Company website.

Article Source: Ezine Articles

Sometimes you are asked to simply take the minutes, sometimes you might be nominated as secretary to the meeting. There is a difference; the secretary may have responsibility for additional tasks such as helping set the agenda, sending out invitations and arranging the venue. Not to forget the important issue of refreshments!

Whether you are meeting secretary or minute taker here are some tips on how to make yourself popular:

• take some spare pens / notepaper (someone will arrive without)

• likewise take copies of the agenda and previous minutes. Mr Hopeless turns up at the last minute not having had time to go to his office to get his papers. He will think you are the bees knees when you help him out and save his blushes.

• check facilities such as projector. If you have a guest speaker and the arrangements aren’t in place the chairperson will be embarrassed

• check the room beforehand – is it set up the way the chairperson wants it? Often the room will have been used immediately before the meeting, or the night before, and might not be tidy.

• make sure any arrangements are made for special needs eg wheelchair access

• enquire whether refreshments are required, particularly if people have to travel. If it is a morning event simple things like hot coffee can pave the way for a good meeting. If lunch is to be provided are there any special dietary requirements eg coeliac, vegetarian?

• does everyone know how to find the venue/room?

Clear the room of any confidential papers at the end of the meeting. Quite often people leave sensitive documents when they leave the room. This can have very embarrassing consequences.

So next time you are asked to be involved in a meeting like this and your responsibility goes beyond simply taking the minutes follow these simple guidelines and you will be very popular at the meeting.

Greg Tyndall of The Minute Taking Training Company is an expert on all aspects of minute taking and the arrangement and management of meetings. Greg has been helping individuals and organisations with their Minute Taking Training needs for over a decade now.

For lots useful tips and resources and to read Greg’s blog visit the Minute Taking Training Company website.

Article Source: Ezine Articles

When you are asked to go along and take the minutes it can feel like you are being ‘dumped upon’. Do not believe it! The role of the minute taker is one of considerable importance. The meeting will be a waste of time if the proceedings, particularly the action points, are not recorded accurately. The fact that you have been asked to take on this role means that someone has recognised that you have the ability to perform this key task.

It also gives you the opportunity to shine. Where else would you get the exposure to senior managers and decision makers? By showing you have good written skills and can produce a professional set of minutes you will be able to enhance your reputation among a wide circle of influential people.

And don’t forget it enables you to attend meetings you would otherwise not attend. This will develop your knowledge of the organisation, makes you privy to why key business decisions are taken and will keep you abreast of developments. In other words minute taking is a career development opportunity – seize it with enthusiasm!

Do not consider yourself the poor relation of the meeting. You should work with the chairperson to make the meeting run smoothly.

Have a meeting with the chairperson beforehand – what sort of minutes does he/she want – concise, comprehensive, action points only? Do you know anything about the attendees/their points of view that could help the chair?

Advise the chair of domestic arrangements like toilets, fire drill etc. He/she should mention these at the start of the meeting for any visitors.

Sit next to the chairperson, this makes it easier for you to indicate that you need a recap on the last twenty minutes of hot air.

The chairperson is likely to be heavily involved in debate, this makes it harder for him/her to manage time.  Have a subtle signal to advise when things are running over. (You may want to look at the agenda with the chairperson before the meeting and pencil in rough timings for each agenda item).

Remind the chairperson at the end of the meeting to fix a date for the next meeting if appropriate.

Is your mind boggled by terminology you have not come across before? Have you got a quorum, is the discussion ultra vires, is the chairperson talking about a nem con outcome? Nil desperandum, a bit of latin here and there never harmed anyone.

Here are a few explanations that will help you while minute taking:

Ad hoc - One off committee/meeting set up for a particular purpose

Nem con – No objections – but not necessarily unanimous

Quorum - Minimum number of members required to start the meeting

Ultra vires - Beyond the powers/scope of the meeting

And now some plain English ones:

Abstention – Someone decides not to vote i.e. they ‘abstain’

Addendum – Words added at the end of a motion

Motion – A proposal put forward for consideration at the meeting

Point of order – Question regarding procedure

Resolution – A motion becomes a resolution when it has been adopted

Standing committee – Permanent meeting held at regular intervals

Standing orders – The agreed rules of the committee

There you go, you might not have listened to your Latin teacher at school but you’ll now look good when you nod knowingly as the chairperson breaks into Roman mode and all around you are looking puzzled. So bona fortuna and, to quote Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society, carpe diem.

There are a number of famous meetings that have taken place down the years that it would have been fascinating to be a fly on the wall at (or just a minute taker).  The top three in our opinion are below:

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown

At a restaurant in Islington Tony Blair and Gordon Brown thrashed out the terms of their relationship moving forward.  It would have been fascinating to be party to this meeting and in light of what came afterwards I bet Gordon Brown wishes that he had employed a professional minute taker to record everything word for word.

Niels Bohr & Werner Heisenberg

The meeting between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg has created widespread controversy and speculation as to what was actually said during the meeting.  More crucially there is controversy as to what was behind the words said that day.

The two were good friends and also the greatest physicists of their time and they met first in 1922 when Heisenberg was Bohr’s physics teacher.  A happy and collaborative friendship ensued.  However this was strained when in 1939 shortly after the discovery of nuclear fission Germany began its nuclear energy programme.

Heisenberg was the principal scientist on this programme and Bohr with his partially Jewish ancestry remained in occupied Denmark while Heisenberg was in Germany.  In 1941 the pair met in Copenhagen and it is widely thought that Heisenberg revealed the atomic bomb programme, abruptly ending both the meeting and their 20-year friendship.

John Terry and Fabio Capello

Having been exposed for cheating on his wife and having an affair with a teammates girlfriend John Terry was called to a meeting with the England Manager Fabio Capello to discuss his role as England Captain.

The meeting was short and sweet and totally private and ended with Terry being stripped of the England captain’s role just prior to the start of the World Cup.

Once again it would have been fascinating to be a fly on the wall or a minute taker at this meeting.  It is rumoured that the main reason that Capello stripped Terry of the captaincy was that he is highly religious man and totally against abortion.  Terry and the partner of his England colleague Wayne Bridge were rumoured to have had a termination during their relationship and Capello apparently took exception to this.

We cannot claim that all meetings you will attend will be as interesting as the ones listed above but we can assure you that our minute taking courses will ensure that if you had been present in any of the above meetings they would have been accurately and clearly recorded.

Despite the fact that minutes can now be recorded in a wide variety of different ways the fundamental principles remain the same.

Effective minutes can be the difference between action being taken or the meeting being a complete waste of time.

The following 5 techniques should help you –

Work out what works best for you

If you are more comfortable with a pen and paper then use this.  Advances in technology are only good if they are used as enablers not disablers.

If someone is insisting on you using a laptop to record the minutes ask them why they want this method used.  If you are more comfortable without a laptop then stand your ground.  Don’t forget however to have a back-up pen (or three!!) and back-up notepad.

The Agenda is King

Get hold of a copy of the agenda as soon as you possibly can prior to the meeting.  This will allow you to accurately plan how you will take the minutes and it will also mean there are no surprises.

If it is not possible to get a copy of the agenda prior to the meeting then do not be afraid to ask for two minutes to review the agenda at the start of the meeting.  If an agenda doesn’t exist it begs the question as to what the purpose of the meeting is in the first place.

Use a Seating Plan

If you are able to sketch out a quick seating plan this will help you enormously in the long run.  At meetings idea will go back and forth and it will greatly assist you in remembering who said what if you have a seating plan.

Follow-Up Quickly

It is essential that the minutes of the meeting are checked for errors, tidied up and sent round as soon as possible after the meeting.  This is because it is fresh in your mind and also fresh in the mind of the participants too.

Invest in your own development

If you are regularly being asked to take the minute then consider investing in your own development.  There are a myriad of minute taking courses out there, we obviously think ours is the best there is on the market but then we would wouldn’t we??

It can sometime be difficult to maintain your concentration during meetings especially if the subject is not necessarily familiar to you or it is of a highly technical nature.  The great news is that there are things that can be done about this.

Drink Plenty of Water

Not so much that you need to disappear off to the toilet every five minute but enough to keep you hydrated.  Many studies have shown that as soon as we are even slightly dehydrated our levels of concentration drop.  So make sure you always have plenty of water close by.