What are the most effective ways to take meeting minutes?

Decide on a consistent format for your meeting minutes. Common formats include chronological, outline, or action-oriented formats. Choose a tool that suits your preferences and organization's needs. This could be a word processing program, note-taking app, or specialized meeting minutes software.

I suggest 2 methods for this: 1. RAPID model (Recommend, Agree, Perform, Input, and Decide) 2. A simple Meeting minutes template (5 “W”s approach - who, what, when, where, and why) At the end of the day it should include: 1. Date, attendees 2. Meeting Objectives 3. Discussion points 4. Agreements 5. Action items / assigned to who & a due date

-Select the appropriate format & tools: Select a format that fits your requirements. -Understanding the meeting agenda beforehand is crucial to focus on critical points, which is why preparation is key. -Make sure to note decisions, action items, & responsible parties clearly. -Summarize & Review: Condense complex discussions into concise summaries. -Make sure to distribute and follow up: Share minutes promptly & keep track of action items. #Meetingminutes #Productivity #Effectivecommunication

My 2 cents is: ALWAYS RECORD THE DECISIONS AND NOT THE DISCUSSIONS. Minutes of the Meeting should always be crisp and to the point.

Instead of focusing on recording every detail, concentrate on capturing the core. They are the pulse of the meeting, the heartbeat that keeps the project alive. Begin with the meeting's objective. Did the discussion align with the goal? If not, why? Where did it veer off course? Identify the key decisions. Who made them? What are the reasons and the expected outcomes? Highlight the action items. Who is responsible? What are the deadlines? Here's the unspoken secret: your minutes are not just a record. They are a tool for accountability and follow-up. A roadmap for the team's journey ahead. The next time you're tasked with taking minutes, remember: it's not about the words spoken, it's about the message conveyed.

Familiarize yourself with the agenda and objectives of the meeting to anticipate the topics that will be discussed. Create a template with sections for the meeting date, attendees, agenda items, discussion points, decisions made, and action items.

It's always helpful to pre-outline meeting notes. Often, the most strategic person in the room is NOT the person taking notes. It is a mistake to assume the person assigned note-taking duties will act strategically. Often, it is a task assigned to the most junior person. Therefore, set them up for success. Create the outline and let them know what acceptable notes look like.

Sharing my experience here, I've discovered that meticulous preparation can make all the difference when it comes to taking effective meeting minutes. What made it special was a real-time collaborative section for attendees to add notes. It allowed meeting attendees to add their own notes directly, ensuring that everyone's perspectives were captured accurately. Additionally, I added a visual summary section with charts and diagrams, making complex ideas more accessible. This approach enhanced our meeting minutes significantly. Not only did it streamline our discussions and action items, but it also served as a valuable reference for our team afterward.

Preparation continues to be key. Like definition of responsibilities and eventually matching the agenda with the outcome. Quality of the meeting should be measured by the objectives achieved.

Any meeting should have minutes, you will not and cannot remember it all. A meeting with no-minutes is not a meeting it is a bit of a chat gathering. The minute taker preferably be an independent who must be a good listener and a fast note taker. The best will also be to record the meeting. Wishing you more than enough! ???? ??????????

People underestimate the importance of good minutes. Minutes are not a word-for-word transcript of the meeting yet they should reflect the different opinions, how conclusions were reached and what action or decision ensued. Minutes are complemented by the materials used during the meeting, no need to reproduce the content. At the same time, minutes should make sense at a later point in time - months or years after the fact. It's a precious skill that can be learned and should be nurtured.

Now a days, mostly meetings are happening remotely through online channels. Recording the session will be always available and we can use it. If it is a physical face to face meeting, then you might need a voice recorder to get your recordings. It is always easy to go through the recordings end of the meeting to capture the missing points which should be there in the meeting minutes.

In my experience, It's easy to fall into the trap of wanting to document everything verbatim, but the real value in minutes lies in capturing the essence and actionable outcomes of a meeting. Utilizing bullet points and visual aids like tables or charts not only keeps the document concise but also enhances its readability. Perhaps most crucially, I suggest to actively engage during the meeting by asking questions or seeking clarifications is vital. After all, it's far better to ensure accuracy in the moment rather than decipher ambiguities later. I think this method seems like a balanced blend of active listening and structured documentation.

I would say when preparing notes for a meeting, it is crucial to set up an agenda, and relevant notes based on it. So you can stay on track, the meeting for me shall be a review session and additional notes should only be necessary highlight on top of it. This keep all the needed info concise and relevant to the team.

I started using one note to take the minutes myself. Setting up main points and assignments prior to the meeting, as mentioned in most comments is essential and keeps you on track. Afterwards I share the notes to all attendees to read and ensure all are in agreement with the notes then change or edit if necessary. Also speak with those who had questions to clarify.

During the meeting, take concise notes. Focus on capturing the main points and outcomes rather than transcribing everything. Use shorthand or abbreviations to save time but ensure they are clear and understandable to you later. Pay attention to the tone and sentiment of discussions, especially if they are relevant to the meeting's objectives.

As an educator, I often find myself processing information into categories. Therefore, as I prepare a summary of my meeting notes, I always group my notes using a three-T model that I created: 1) Topic 2) Task 3) Timelines This note-taking method has its benefits, and they are as follows: 1) It makes it easier to revisit my notes on future dates to access our meeting agreement. 2) It is beneficial to hold stakeholders accountable for their contributions. 3) It provides more opportunities for stakeholder collaborations. 4) It is a great way to promote a productive meeting culture. 5) It is a great way to hold yourself accountable as a leader.

Here is where some of the new generation tools could be leveraged. The buzz word AI! Note taking, notes summarizing and content cleaning tasks which are error prone and deviates the attention of the meeting participants can be outsourced to the right tool. Recording of audio and running these tools on recordings also could help cut down the time and distractions

Summarizing meeting minutes acts as a compass, guiding you through the meeting jungle, ensuring you never lose your way in the midst of discussions. Cheers!

My approach has been to take five minutes at the end of the meeting to review the main points from the notes together or even have the notes on screen as you go. This avoids a situation where people disagree with an action or key learning after the event. Particularly useful when you have a group that is new or prone to misunderstandings

Share the meeting minutes promptly with attendees and relevant stakeholders. This ensures that everyone is on the same page and can review the accuracy of the minutes. Include action items and due dates in a clear and organized manner. Follow up on action items in subsequent meetings to track progress and ensure accountability.

If the next meeting cadence is far away or if there are no followup meetings on this topic - send a periodic update on the action items (include all owners, stakeholders and their leaders as needed) until full closure. This will help bring the necessary closure efficiently.

In most Rural communities people still use the old format of writing the minutes of the meeting, I attended a meeting of farmers and they had an argument, The meeting book with the minutes solved the problem as they went back months ago to verify a claim made by one of the members It is very important to write the minutes of every meeting, You will never know when it will be needed. Using the old fashion it's important to use a member with good handwriting who can spell properly and is a good listener. This will make it well organized, easy to read for adoption, easy for another person to take over With recent software development, it is much easier now.

As Ms. Wong noted - sending meeting minutes promptly is so important. Meetings are usually held to gather people who may contribute to an overall goal, and to note important points to help get that goal to-done. If the meeting is important, then equally so is the follow-up. Follow-up not something that should be overlooked, ever. If tasks assigned during the meeting are not completed to help forward the goal you met about, then having another meeting is a waste of time since there will be nothing moved ahead.

Using an organized OneNote allows you to quickly copy past action items, timelines and commitments. Be a good partner and share content from the meeting (desks, resources reviewed etc.).

I've come across automated transcription tools like Otter.ai and features in online meeting platforms like Microsoft Teams, and I must say they serve as easy to use meeting notes helpers. They capture real-time conversations without too much effort. These technologies may not be flawless, I've personally experienced how integrating them into my routine has transformed my productivity and saved my time for other tasks. The artificial intelligence supporting foreign languages still has much to learn. In the digital age, note-taking shouldn't be limited to pen and paper. I highly recommend to make use of these tools, adapt them to your own working style, and witness your work reach new levels of efficiency and effectiveness.

Keep the minutes clear, concise, and to the point. Avoid unnecessary details and jargon. Maintain an objective tone in your minutes. Avoid personal opinions or biases. If possible, include timestamps or the duration of discussions to provide context on the time allocated to various topics. Note any attendees who were absent and whether they designated a proxy or were informed of the meeting outcomes. In some organizations, meeting minutes may require signatures to confirm their accuracy and approval. Check your organization's policies on this.

MOM is a common term we use as an outcome of the meeting. Minutes have to articulate as DDA methodology called Discussion | Decision | Action. If the DDA is applied in the MOM in such a fashion, Action should have who and when. Then, the MOM is constructed well.

The most effective meeting minutes are those that are used. What are the role of meeting minutes after they are created? Are they used to start the next meeting, or is there a moment you go through actions or decisions to reflect if you are on track and still living up to your expectations? Minutes without purpose and use are just a waste of time. When you take meeting minutes, do it for future usage in mind. The future usage should be concrete and ideally already planned.

In my experience meeting minutes and followup are the core element of how a company drives value driven performance. Meeting minutes should be summarized ( minutes ) with clear decisions / consent / agreed motions. And should be convertible into an action plan. The meeting facilitator should invite the most critical audience appropriately required and not a single more, set clear outcome expectation and share pre-read prior to the meetings, start the meeting on time , facilitate key points reaching the conclusion or parking lot during the meeting, involve all stakeholders and thank everyone must reach out to concerned owners for clarity and confirmation BEFORE distributing the minutes. Owners for followup should be mutually agreed